Mallika Sherawat was born on October 24 1976, Rohtak, Haryana, India as Reema Lamba. Mallika Sherawat was born in a Jat philanthropist Seth Chhaju Ram's family .
Mallika Sherawat adopted the screen name 'Mallika' to avoid any kind of confusion with other actresses with the name Reema. 'Sherawat' is Mallika's mother's maiden name and she started using her mother's maiden name to honor her mother's support to her for which she is thankful.
She completed her schooling at Delhi Public School, Mathura Roadand and finished her graduation degree in philosophy from Miranda House, Delhi University.her favorite films are Sholay (1975), Silsila (1981) and Masoom (1983).
Her family was against her career choices. Although the Sherawat family denies all this but Mallika defied his wishes and moved to Mumbai to carve a niche for herself in the big bad world of showbiz.she not only defied her father’s wishes, but also walked out of her marriage with Jet Airways pilot Captain Karan Singh Gill in Delhi to pursue her dream.The marriage quickly ended in divorce.It was after the divorce that Mallika, then known as Reema,she decided to try her luck at movies.
After completed her graduation from Miranda House, Delhi University she was working as a part time airhostess.
Mallika start her career in a small role in Vashu Bhagnani's film Jeena Sirf Mere Liye. After this Mallika was on the cover page of an international magazine,Snoop, and the Indian edition of Cosmopolitan.
Mallika Sherawat change her name reema when she did her first film as a leading role in, Khwahish (2003). She claims to have changed it because there were too many actresses in the industry with similar names like Reema Sen, Raima Sen, and Rimii Sen.
In April 2006, Mallika went on her first world tour of concert performances called Rock Stars along with Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Zayed Khan, Esha Deol, and John Abraham.
Then Mahesh Bhatt's thriller Murder directed by Anurag Basu has put Mallika in an unconventional act. A story of a lonely married woman having an affair, the film had shades of celebration, of blossoming passion, love and insecurity. Murder became the top grosser of 2004 raising Mallika’s popularity immensely, this time people were taking note of her acting skills along with the bold scenes in the movie.
Mallika has not only established herself in Bollywood, she is also going international having bagged Jackie Chan’s next film (The Myth) .In 2009, Sherawat finished (shooting) a Hollywood film named Hissss co-starring Irrfan Khan and directed by Jennifer Lynch. The film, based on the legend of Nāga, is a an independent co-production between the United States and India.
Endeavour Independent has bought the distribution rights of Hisss. Sherawat promoted the film with live snakes at the Cannes Film Festival 2010.
Hisss is slated to release in all major Indian languages on 22nd October 2010. Sherawat also finished shooting for another Hollywood film. Love, Barack aka "Poltics of Love", directed by William Dear. She plays Aretha Gupta, a devoted local Obama volunteer coordinator. The film is a romantic comedy set during Barack Obama's campaign for the US Presidency. First look of Love, Barack was unveiled by Sherawat at Cannes 2010.
Sherawat won the 2008 Renaissance Artist Award at the 16th Annual Diversity Awards held in California. On 14 August 2009, Sherawat received a career recognition Honorary Citizenship of Los Angeles for her career achievements and charitable efforts.