Kriti Sanon (born 27 July 1990) is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi films. Born and raised in New Delhi, she pursued an engineering degree from the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, after which she briefly worked as a model. She made her acting debut with the Telugu psychological thriller 1: Nenokkadine (2014) and had her first Hindi film release in Sabbir Khan's action film Heropanti (2014), for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Sanon went on to play the lead female role in two commercially successful films, the action-comedy Dilwale (2015), which ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, and the romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017).

Kriti Sanon was born on 27 July 1990 to Rahul, a chartered accountant and Geeta, a professor at the University of Delhi. She has a younger sister, Nupur. She attended Delhi Public School, RK Puram and completed her BTech degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, from Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

She has appeared in various television commercials, endorsing brands such as Close Up, Vivel, Amul, Samsung, Himalaya and Bata. She modelled for Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week 2010, held in Mumbai. In 2012, she appeared in Chennai International Fashion week and India International Jewelry week. Kriti has been a favourite of several well-known Indian designers for whom she frequently modelled, like Ritu Beri, Suneet Varma and Niki Mahajan.