Nagesh Kukunoor was born to K. S. Naidu and Kusuma Sudershan and brought up in Hyderabad. From early childhood, he was very fond of watching both Hindi and English films.
He finished his schooling from Montfort Anglo-Indian School, in Tamil Nadu. Although he did Chemical Engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, he completed his MS degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
However, he returned to India 1998 to pursue his real calling - Filmmaking. Before the same, he attended workshops in film and television and studied acting at the Warehouse Actor's Theatre in Atlanta and in 1994, co-produced and directed a short film.
His first film, Hyderabad Blues, made on a very tight budget, won him critical acclaim. After this, he has made several films of which Rockford, Iqbal, Dor received acclaim. He is working on his next film Aashayein, which is due for release, soon.