List of Famous people born in Kerala, India

Rajesh Touchriver is an Indian filmmaker, production designer and scriptwriter. He has won several state awards, national and international awards for his feature films, documentaries and short films. He worked with the National School of Drama, New Delhi as a designer in 1995. By the year 1998, he had directed more than 30 plays in Malayalam, English and Telugu languages. Rajesh won the Charles Wallace Trust Award in 2001 and pursued his master's degree in visual language/scenography and direction from the Wimbledon College of Art, London.

Daniel Babu Paul was an Indian civil servant, writer, member of the Indian Administrative Service and member Ombudsman for local self-government institutions of Kerala during 2000–2001. He was the Former Finance Secretary, Government of Kerala. He retired in the rank of Chief Secretary.

Raju Narayanaswamy is an Indian Administrative Service officer and whistleblower. A district collector for five Kerala districts during his career, Narayanaswamy was one of several IAS officers chosen by former chief minister V. S. Achuthanandan to investigate corruption in the state. He was transferred many times during his career, and has been compared to fellow IAS officer and whistleblower Ashok Khemka.

Sumathi Josephine, better known by her stage name Rekha, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Tamil and Malayalam films. She also starred in few Telugu and Kannada films. She is a leading actress between 1986 to 1996 and later playing supporting roles.

Bejoy Nambiar is an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work in Bollywood. He is mostly known for his critically acclaimed short films, Rahu and Reflections, starring Mohanlal. He was the winner of Sony PIX’ s Gateway to Hollywood, as the best director judged by Ashok Amritraj, Rajat Kapoor and Anurag Basu. He marked his feature film debut with the thriller Shaitan (2011). His second feature film was a bilingual gangster-comedy film called David. His latest Bollywood film was Taish (2020) which was also released as a Series on ZEE5 .He also directed Wazir (2016), starring Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar. He has also directed a short video 'Sachinocalypse' for All India Bakchod.

Ashitha was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature, best known for her short stories, poems and translations. She contributed in popularising haiku poems in Malayalam through her translations and her stories were known for the sensitive portrayal of life. She was a recipient of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story as well as other honours including Padmarajan Award, Lalithambika Anterjanam Smaraka Sahitya Award and Edasseri Award.

Thodupuzha Vasanthi was an Indian actress who acted mainly in Malayalam films. She appeared in over 450 movies and also in 16 tele-serials and 100 plays. She was a theater artist, before starting with small roles in movies. Her first full length role was in Kakka in 1982. Some of her most popular films include Yavanika (1982), Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (1984), Nirakkoottu (1985) and Godfather (1991). She was also a dance teacher at Varamani Natyalaya. She underwent treatment for throat cancer before her death on 28 November 2017 at the age of 65.

M. I. Shanavas was an Indian politician. He was the working president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee and a Member of Parliament of the 16th Lok Sabha of India.

Jimmy George is often considered one of the greatest volleyball players of all time and was a member of India men's national volleyball team. He was the first Indian volleyball player to become a professional and played club volleyball in Italy. He is brother-in-law of the olympian Anju Bobby George.

Shamnad Basheer was an Indian legal scholar and founder of the blog SpicyIP. He was also the founder of IDIA, a trust which works on making legal education accessible for underprivileged students. Basheer was a Ministry of Human Resource Development Chaired Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the WBNUJS, Kolkata, and the Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the George Washington University Law School, and a research associate at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Center (OIPRC). He founded several initiatives such as SpicyIP, IDIA, P-PIL and Lex Biosis. Basheer intervened in the landmark Novartis case, filed a number of other public interest litigations and took initiative to bring about changes in the IPR regime in India.