Niki Karimi born on November 10,1971 in Tehran, From Father Homayoun and mother Touran, She started acting in Theatrical groups in elementary school. "As a child, I read books and surly I found my self imaging being each character that I read, Jane Eire, Anna Karenina, Rebecca ... It begins this way." In 1989, she started acting in cinema with "The Temptation" by Jamshid Haidari. After that she appeared in "The bride" directed by Behrooz Afkhami in 1990, "Sara" by Darioush Mehrjouii in 1991. For "Sara" an adaptation of Henrik Ebsen's "The doll’s house", She won silver shell for the best actress from "San Sebastian Film Festival" and the best Actress award from "Nantes Film Festival". Then in the same year she went to USA to study designing. She came back for acting in "Pari" by Darioush Mehrjouii n 1992. Pari, an adaptation of Salinger's " Frani and Zooey " was a big success and it brought her the third Fajr Film Festival nomination for the Best Actress and she won many critics award for Pari. In 1998 she appeared in two woman by Tahmineh Milani, for whom she won" Taormina Film Festival award" and the fifth time Fajr Film Festival nomination. After that she acted in " The hidden half "by "Tahmineh Milani". She won The Best Actress Award from "Cairo film Festival" for this film in 2001. In 2001, She made a documentary about Infertility. "To have or not to have" her debut in directing won "The Rain" documentary award in Iran. In 2002 she appeared in "The one flew over cuckoo's nest" by Ahmadreza Motamedi and "The fifth reaction" which she won Award for the Best actress from Fajr Film Festival for both of them. In 2004 she made her first feature film "One night" which was in official Competition selection of "Cannes film festival " in un certain Regard Section .One night Selected for more than 58 festival around the world. In 2006 , She made her Second feature " A few days later ...".

Her Family are living in England. She is got a sister Nazanin (1974), who is a lawyer and Khashayar (1986), who is studding psychology.