Manisha Koirala, born on August 16, 1970 in Kathmandu, Nepal, is a Bollywood actress, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and social activist. Koirala is also an accomplished Bharatnatyam and Manipuri dancer.

Koirala was born into a prominent political Koirala family; her grandfather, and two of her great uncles were Prime Ministers of Nepal. She studied at New Delhi's Army Public School and her ambition was to be a doctor, but a modeling stint opened a career pathway into Bollywood.

Her first film was Pheri Dhidora (We shall meet again), a Nepali movie released in early 1989. Her first Hindi movie was Saudagar which was directed by Subhash Ghai. After that she worked with directors like Mani Ratnam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shekhar Kapoor, Ram Gopal Verma, Rajkumar Santoshi, Mansoor Khan and many others.

She went on to star in many hits such as 1942: A Love Story and Bombay. Her performance in the latter gave her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. The film was directed by Mani Ratnam, and she starred in his next film Dil Se as well in 1998. 1996 was her year with her films Agnisakshi doing well at the box office and her highly acclaimed role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi: The Musical. She played an important role in the alongside Kajol and Bobby Deol in the super hit Gupt. She starred with Ajay Devgan in the film Company directed by Ram Gopal Verma She also starred in the leading role in couple of Tamil and Telugu movies.

She produced the small-budget caper-comedy Paisa Vasool (2004) in which she starred along with Sushmita Sen and was directed by Srinivas Bhashyam; this was probably the first ever chick-flick in Indian cinema in that it didn't have a male lead nor a love story, though most of her films have not done well at the box office but her niche as an actor remains harmless irrespective of box office collections. She was nominated for Filmfare awards for her performances in 1942:A Love Story, Bombay, Akele Hum Akele Tum, Agnisakshi, Dil se and Khamoshi; for which she picked up trophies for Bombay, Khamoshi and a surprise award for the film Company. She has won the Screen award once for Khamoshi- The Musical.

Recently she returned from New York after receiving a diploma in filmmaking.

In September 1999, Koirala was appointed as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. She is actively involved in social work, specifically working with organizations to promote women’s rights, prevention of violence against women, and also to prevent the human trafficking of Nepali girls for prostitution.