Abhirami () (née Divya Gopikumar; July 1983) is an Indian actress, television host and reality show judge. She has acted predominantly in Tamil and Malayalam films and few credits in Telugu and Kannada films.Abhirami went on to established herself as an leading actress in the 2000s across the Malayalam and Tamil language industries after appearing in films such as Sradha (2000), Middle Class Madhavan (2001), Charlie Chaplin (2002), Raktha Kanneeru (2003) and Virumaandi (2004). After a 10 year hiatus, she returned back to the film industry in 2014 and acted in multiple films as a supporting actress until 2021 where she got a role as one of lead actress in the film Maara after 17 years. She also became a reality show judge through the show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs (season 3).

Early life and education

She was born as Divya Gopikumar in July 1983, to Gopikumar and Pushpa in Kerala.She attended Christ Nagar English High School and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, in Trivandrum and did predegree training from Mar Ivanios College, before graduating in programs for psychology and communications from the College of Wooster in Ohio.Her family migrated to the United States in 2004 when she got a job there. Her parents are yoga instructors in Ohio.

Career

Abhirami made her debut in director Adoor Gopalakrishnan's film ''Kathapurushan''. While in college, Abhirami worked as a TV anchor for the program ''Top Ten'' which aired on the Asianet channel, which according to Abhirami was "quite popular" and got her a film offer. She also appeared in the 100-episode Malayalam serial ''Akshaya Pathram'', directed by Sreekumaran Thampi. She changed her screen name to Abhirami, the character name of the heroine of the film ''Gunaa'', being "obsessed with the role and the name".She had a small role in the Malayalam film ''Pathram'' in 1999 and in the series ''Mercara'' directed by Jude Attipetty. Later she acted in the films ''Millennium Stars'', ''Njangal Santhushtaranu'', and ''Sradha'' before shifting to Tamil cinema. Her first Tamil film was ''Vaanavil'' (2001) opposite Arjun, which was a "big hit" and was followed by ''Middle Class Madhavan'' and ''Samudhiram''. A notable film in her career was ''Virumaandi'', in which she appeared as a Tamil village girl from Madurai opposite Kamal Haasan. Besides Tamil and Malayalam, she has appeared in Telugu and Kannada films and was a notable Tollywood actress. In 2003, she appeared opposite Upendra in the film ''Raktha Kanneeru'' and opposite Shiva Rajkumar in ''Sri Ram''. In 2004, she retired from the film industry and settled in the United States for her studies. She went on to work as the marketing director of an MNC there.In 2013, Abhirami was the voice of Pooja Kumar in both parts of Kamal Haasan's ''Vishwaroopam'' and she went on to host ''Rishimoolam'', a talk show on the Tamil television channel Puthuyugam. The following year, she returned to Malayalam films with ''Apothecary'', in which she played the role of a gynaecologist. She also appeared in ''Ithu Thaanda Police'' playing the role of Sub-Inspector Arundhati Varma.She has also anchored the reality show ''Made For Each Other'' on Mazhavil Manorama. She also appeared in ''Ithu Thaanda Police'' playing the role of Sub-Inspector Arundhati Varma.She has also anchored the reality show ''Made For Each Other'' on Mazhavil Manorama.