Yami Gautam was born on November 28, 1988, in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India. She was brought up in Chandigarh. Her father, Mukesh Gautam, is a Punjabi film director and was the vice president of PTC Punjabi channel.

Her mother, Anjali Gautam, is a homemaker. Yami has a younger sister, Surilie Gautam, who is also an actress, and a younger brother, Ojas Gautam.

Yami Gautam did her regular schooling and later entered college to pursue a graduate degree in law honors. She had aspired to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) as a young girl, but at the age of 20, she decided to venture into an acting career.

Though she was pursuing studies in Law Honors, she left full-time studies for acting. Recently, she has been doing her part-time graduation from Mumbai. She is fond of reading, interior decoration, and listening to music.

Yami Gautam began her career as a model and starred in television soap operas such as Chand Ke Paar Chalo (2008–2009) and Yeh Pyar Na Hoga Kam (2009–2010). In 2012, she had her first Hindi film release in the comedy-drama Vicky Donor, which won her the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut.

She had supporting roles in the thrillers Badlapur (2015) and Kaabil (2017), and greater success came for starring in the war film Uri: The Surgical Strike and the satire Bala (both 2019). She starred in the streaming films Bhoot Police (2021), A Thursday (2022), Dasvi (2022), and Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (2023), and had further commercial success in the satire OMG 2 (2023) and the political thriller Article 370 (2024).

Yami Gautam married Aditya Dhar, a film director, on June 4, 2021. Their love story began on the set of “Uri: The Surgical Strike” (2019), a film in which Yami played a pivotal role, and Aditya served as the director.

Yami Gautam has received several awards and nominations for her performances. Some of her notable awards include:

• 5th Boroplus Gold Award for “Rising Film Stars From TV” for the film ‘Vicky Donor’ (2012)
• BIG Star Entertainment Award for “Most Entertaining Actor (Film) Debut – Female” for the film ‘Vicky Donor’ (2012)
• Zee Cine Award for “Best Female Debut” for the film ‘Vicky Donor’ (2013)
• IIFA Award for “Star Debut of the Year – Female” for the film ‘Vicky Donor’ (2013)
• Lokmat Most Stylish Award for ‘Most stylish Unconventional Actress’ for the film ‘Bala’ (2019)
• Star Screen Award for “Best Comedian” for the film ‘Bala’ (2020)