Shraddha Kapoor (born 3 March 1987) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. One of India's highest-paid actresses, Kapoor has been featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list of 2016.

The daughter of actor Shakti Kapoor, she began her acting career with a brief role in the 2010 heist film Teen Patti, for which she received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, followed by her first leading role in the teen drama Luv Ka The End (2011), but both films failed to propel her career forward. Kapoor had her breakthrough with Mohit Suri's romantic musical Aashiqui 2 (2013), which earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She received critical appreciation for playing a character inspired by Ophelia in Vishal Bhardwaj's acclaimed drama Haider (2014)

She went on to establish herself with starring roles in the romantic thriller Ek Villain (2014), the dance drama ABCD 2 (2015), and the action film Baaghi (2016). After a series of poorly received releases, Kapoor regained commercial success with the comedies Chhichhore (2019) and Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (2023), the action thriller Saaho (2019), and the Maddock Horror Comedy Universe films Stree (2018) and its sequel Stree 2 (2024). The latter emerged as her highest-grossing release and earned her a second Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actress.

In addition to acting, Kapoor has sung several songs for her films. She is also a prominent celebrity endorser and, in 2015, launched her own clothing line. On Instagram, she is the most-followed Indian woman.

Kapoor was born and raised in Mumbai. On her father's side, Kapoor is of Punjabi descent, and on her mother's side, she is of Marathi and Konkani descent. Her maternal grandfather, Pandharinath Kolhapure's, (the nephew of Deenanath Mangeshkar and maternal first cousin of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle) paternal family hailed from Kolhapur and her maternal grandmother hailed from Panaji, Goa. In an interview with The Hindustan Times, Kapoor revealed that, she was raised in a Marathi cultural setting as her maternal relatives lived in Maharashtra. She has said that she went through a tomboyish phase as a child and described herself as having a strong attitude, because of which she was deliberately picking fights with boys.

Kapoor's family members include her father Shakti Kapoor and mother Shivangi Kapoor, her elder brother Siddhanth Kapoor, her two aunts Padmini Kolhapure and Tejaswini Kolhapure, who, besides her mother, are all actors in Indian Cinema. She is the great-niece of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Meena Khadikar, Usha Mangeshkar and Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Hailing from a family of actors, Kapoor desired to become an actress since a young age. Wearing her parents' clothes, she used to rehearse film dialogues and dance to Bollywood songs in front of the mirror. She also accompanied her father to various shooting locations in her childhood. During one of David Dhawan's shoots, Kapoor befriended actor Varun Dhawan, to play with him, and they were holding a torch pretending it to be a camera while delivering film lines to each other, and they were also dancing to Govinda's film songs.

Kapoor did her schooling at Jamnabai Narsee School and at the age of 15, she shifted to the American School of Bombay where she was schoolmates with Tiger Shroff and Athiya Shetty. In an interview with The Times of India, Shetty revealed that they all used to participate in dance competitions. Believing herself to be competitive at the age of 17, Kapoor played soccer and handball as she thought these games were challenging. Kapoor then enrolled in Boston University to major in psychology, but she left in her first year to appear in her debut film after she was seen on Facebook by producer Ambika Hinduja, who cast her for a role in Teen Patti. In an interview with Filmfare, Shakti Kapoor revealed that Kapoor was barely 16 years old when she was offered her first film, Lucky: No Time for Love (2005) by Salman Khan, after he saw one of her school play performances, but she rejected the proposal as she was aspiring to become a psychologist. Kapoor was trained as a singer since her childhood as her maternal grandfather and mother are classical singers.

Kapoor made her acting debut in the 2010 thriller Teen Patti, alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley and R. Madhavan. She played the role of a college girl. The film received generally negative reviews, though her performance was better received. Preeti Arora, writing for Rediff.com said, "though a bit raw, she has a lot of potential." Nikhat Kazmi reviewed: "Shraddha Kapoor makes an interesting debut as the edgy youngster who sheds her specs for sleaze, with alacrity." The film failed to do well at the box office; however Kapoor's performance earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Kapoor admitted that after her debut film’s failure, she faced a "dull phase" in her career as production houses were hesitant to collaborate with her, leaving her without work.