Deepika Padukone was born on 5th Jan 1986 into Konkani family in Copenhagen, Denmark, but her family moved back to Bengaluru when she was 11 months old. Her father, Prakash Padukone is former badminton player of international repute and her mother, Ujjala is a travel agent. Her younger sister, Anisha is a golfer. She was educated at Bangalore's Sophia High School and completed her pre-university education at Mount Carmel College, Banglore. She was socially awkward as a child and did not have many friends. She started playing badminton at very young age and played National-level championship during her school years. She also played baseball at State Level Tournaments. In the tenth grade, she changed her mind and decided to become a fashion model.
In 2004 she gained recognition with a television commercial for the soap Liril. In 2005, she made her runway debut at the Lakme Fashion Week for designer Suneet Verma and won the "Model of the Year" award at the 5th Annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards. That year she gains wider recognition featuring in the music video for Himesh Reshammiya's song "Naam Hai Tera”. She enrolled at Anupam Kher’s film academy for learning acting skill course and Shiamak Davar for dance. In 2006 she made her film debut with Aishwarya, a Kannada film directed by Indrajit Lankesh. Farah Khan signed up her for Om Shanti Om (2007), which become blockbuster for which she received Best Debut awards at various ceremonies including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut and received her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress nomination. She made her Hollywood debut with the action film xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)
In addition to acting, Padukone has written opinion columns and has been involved with women's health and fitness magazines. In 2009, she was hired by Hindustan Times to write weekly columns for their lifestyle section. In 2013, she launched her own line of clothing for women, in association with the retail chain Van Heusen. Two years later, Padukone collaborated with the fashion portal Myntra to launch another line under her brand "All About You". In a 2015 interview, Padukone spoke about her personal experience of overcoming depression, and in October that year she formed a foundation to create awareness on mental health in India, named The Live Love Laugh Foundation.