Karthik Sivakumar better known as Karthi, is a Tamil film actor. Karthi was born on May 25, 1977 in Chennai to actor Sivakumar. His brother is the popular South Indian actor Surya Sivakumar and sister in law is actress Jyothika. He has studied at Binghamton University, State University of New York, and later on did some courses on Film Making as well. The actor started his career as an assistant director to Mani Rathnam in Aayitha Ezhuthu and Yuva. Mani Ratnam offered him the lead role in Aayitha Ezhuthu, but he rejected it and the role was given to actor Siddarth Narayan. His debut film was Ameer Sultan's Paruthiveeran(2007). The movie was a hit and gave him instant recognition. He went on to receive the Filmfare Best Tamil Male Debut Award and Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in this movie. His upcoming movies are Selvaraghavan's Aayirathil(2009) Oruvan and Paiyya(2009) where he will be seen opposite Tamanna Bhatia.