Jayaram was born on 10 December 1965 in a Tamil Brahmin family[5] as the second among three children of late Subramaniyam and late Thankam at Perumbavoor, Kerala. His mother is from Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. He had an elder brother named Venkataram, who died at a young age, and a younger sister named Manjula. He did his primary education at Government Boys High School, Perumbavoor. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Sree Sankara College, Kalady and learnt Chenda under the guidance of guru Pallassana Nandakumar.[6] He became a medical representative soon after college and later joined the Kalabhavan Institute where he learned and performed mimicry on a number of stages, which paved his way to the Malayalam film industry.[7] Malayalam writer Malayattoor Ramakrishnan is Jayaram's maternal uncle.[8]
Career
After college, he joined Kalabhavan, a professional mimicry troupe in Kochi. At the age of 22, he was introduced to the cinema by script writer and filmmaker Padmarajan[9] who gave Jayaram his launching pad with the 1988 film Aparan. Jayaram subsequently acted in Padmarajan's Moonnam Pakkam (1988) and Innale (1989). Padmarajan became his mentor in his film career until the former's death in January 1991. He became one of the Superstars of the Malayalam film industry through the film Meleparambil Aanveedu (1993) which was directed by Rajasenan. The film was a commercial success and ran for over 200 days in theatres. His on-screen chemistry with Shobana worked well in the films Innale, Meleparambil Aanveedu and Dhwani.[10][11][12]
He is noted for playing in Kamal's films during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in films such as Pradeshika Varthakal (1989), Peruvannapurathe Visheshangal (1989) and Shubha Yathra (1990) (all of which scripted by Ranjith), where he co-starred with his wife Parvathy. He later did a film scripted by Ranjith with the story by Jagathy Sreekumar and directed by Viji Thampi named Witness (1988). He teamed up with Viji Thampi and Ranjith in Nanma Niranjavan Srinivasan (1990), where he played a police constable who is in search of a criminal played by Mukesh. During the early 90s he acted in Bharathan's Keli (1991) and Malootty (1992).
His association with director Rajasenan created many movies such as Kadinjool Kalyanam (1991), Ayalathe Addeham (1992), Meleparambil Aanveedu (1993), CID Unnikrishnan B.A., B.Ed. (1994), Aniyan Bava Chetan Bava (1995), Aadyathe Kanmani (1995), Swapna Lokathe Balabhaskaran (1996), and Kadhanayakan (1997). He also played Aravindan in Siddique's Friends (1999) in which he co-starred with Sreenivasan and Mukesh was the highest grossing Malayalam movie of 1999 and collected ₹11 crore.[16] In the first decade of the 21st century his commercial successful films include Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal (2000), Yathrakarude Sradhakku (2002), Ente Veedu Appuvinteyum (2003), Manassinakkare (2003), Veruthe Oru Bharya (2008). His critically acclaimed roles include Karunakaran in B. Kannan's Theerthadanam (2001) and Lonappan in Rajeev Kumar's Sesham (2002).
He also forayed into Tamil cinema including roles in Gokulam, Purushalakshanam, Priyanka, Kolangal, Murai Mamman and Pathini. He played the roles of Dr Kailash and Ayyappan Nair in the Kamal Haasan-starred Thenali and Panchathanthiram. They first came together on-screen in Chanakyan (1989). Recently he has done more supporting roles in Tamil, such as antagonist roles in Saroja and Dhaam Dhoom, and a comic role in Aegan.
His movies include Manassinakkare (2003), Njaan Salperu Raman Kutty (2004), Finger Print (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2005), Madhuchandralekha (2006), Moonnamathoral (2006), and Anchal Oral Arjunan (2007). In mid-2008, he played Sugunan in Akku Akbar's Veruthe Oru Bharya (2008) and Thuppakki (2012), which established him as one of the leading comedy actors of Malayalam and Tamil films.
In 2008, he made a comeback after a series of commercial flops by the film Veruthe Oru Bharya (2008), which was both critical and commercial success at the box office and ran over 100 days in theatres.[17][18][19][20][21]
^"2011 സംവിധാനം ചെയ്തത്" [Those (films) which were directed in 2011] (in Malayalam). Malayala Manorama. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2012.