Here is the biography of Suriya:
Suriya was born to actor Sivakumar and his wife Lakshmi in Chennai, but he was brought up in Coimbatore. He is the eldest of three children, with his younger brother Karthi Sivakumar and sister Brindha Sivakumar. He attended PSBB School and St. Bede's School in Chennai and graduated from Loyola College with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Before his career in films, Suriya worked at a garment export factory for eight months. He initially rejected the lead role in Director Vasanth's film Aasai (1995) citing a lack of interest in an acting career. He later debuted in Vasanth's own 1997 film Nerrukku Ner, produced by Mani Ratnam, when he was 22 years old. The stage name Suriya was bestowed on him by Ratnam to avoid a clash of names with established actor Saravanan.
Suriya's major break in acting came in the form of Nandha, which was directed by Bala. He received a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor for his role in the film. His next venture was Vikraman's Unnai Ninaithu followed by Mounam Pesiyadhe directed by debutant Ameer Sultan, which became a hit film and a cult classic.
In 2003, he starred in Gautham Menon's Kaakha Kaakha, a film about the life of a police officer. The film opened to positive reviews and became a Blockbuster at the box office. Suriya also received an ITFA award for Best Actor for his role in the film. Next, his portrayal of a happy-go-lucky village crook with a comic touch in Bala's Pithamagan, along with Vikram, won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2004, he played dual roles in Perazhagan, as an aggressive boxer and a handicapped phone booth keeper. Suriya's performance won positive reviews from critics. The film became a successful venture at the box office, and Suriya won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. The same year, he portrayed the role of a student leader in Mani Ratnam's political drama Ayitha Ezhuthu along with Madhavan and Siddarth, which received highly critical acclaim and became a commercial success.
Suriya signed on to feature in the psychological thriller, Ghajini directed by A. R. Murugadoss in November 2004; he played the role of a patient suffering from short-term memory loss. Ghajini was released in late 2005 and became a Blockbuster and was the third highest-grossing film of that year in Tamil.
In 2006, he acted opposite his wife Jyothika Saravanan in the film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. He made his Bollywood debut in Ram Gopal Varma's two-part political drama Rakta Charitra in 2010, which was released to highly critical acclaim and became an average success. His only release in 2011 that featured him in a starring role was A. R. Murugadoss's science fiction thriller 7aum Arivu. Suriya played dual roles in the film, as a circus artist and as the Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, who lived in the 6th century.
Suriya has also been involved in several charitable activities, including the Agaram Foundation, which he founded in 2008 to help children who drop out of school early in Tamil Nadu. He has also extended help towards the education of Sri Lankan Tamil children on behalf of the Sivakumar Charitable Trust.
In his personal life, Suriya is married to actress Jyothika, with whom he worked with in as many as seven films. The couple has two children, a daughter named Diya and a son named Dev.
