Indira Varma was born in 1973 in Bath, England. Her father was an Indian while her mother was Swiss-Italian.

Varma was associated with the Musical Youth Theater Company. Indira studied the various facets of acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Girl finished school in 1995 and went onto act in various movies, television shows, and theater.

She has worked in many plays, often playing complex and exciting characters like Bianca in Othello at the National Theater in London, Gila in Harold Pinter's One for the Road staged in New York, and Sasha in Anton Chekhov's Ivanov.

Indira has appeared in some episodes of acclaimed television series like The Canterbury's "Tale" (2003), "Little Britain" (2005), "Rome" (2005), "Law & Order" (2008) and "Bones" (2008). In BBC and HBO's award winning "Rome", Indira was cast as Niobe.

This actress has acted in a few English language movies. Indira started with Duncan Roy's Clancy's Kitchen (1996) as Kitty. In 2000, Varma was seen as Maya, a maid who is snubbed by her friend Tara, a princess, in Mira Nair's Kamasutra: A Tale of Love. She masters the art of love and becomes the king's courtesan and Tara's rival for her husband's love.

In Gurinder Chadha's "Bride and Prejudice" (2004) Indira was seen in the role of Kiran, Balraj's snooty sister and as Denise Glass in the sequel "Basic Instinct 2" (2006).