Katrina Kaif was born in Hong Kong on 16 July 1983. Her father Mohammed Kaif is a British businessman of Kashmiri Indian descent and her mother Suzanne is an English lawyer and charity worker. She has seven siblings: three elder sisters (Stephanie, Christine, and Natasha), three younger sisters (Melissa, Sonia, and Isabel) and an elder brother, Michael. Due to their frequent relocation, Kaif and her siblings were home-schooled by a series of tutors.
At the age of fourteen, Kaif won a beauty contest in Hawaii and received her first modeling assignment in a jewelry campaign. Her feature film debut was in Kaizad Gustad's Boom (2003). Malliswari (2004) was her first Telugu film. She received her first acting award—the Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance – Female for the romantic comedy Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? (2005).
She is involved with Relief Projects India, a charitable trust run by her mother which rescues abandoned baby girls and works to prevent female infanticide. Her winnings from the game show 10 Ka Dum and Kaun Banega Crorepati were donated to her mother's Mercy Home orphanage.