Piyush Mishra, one of the most multi-faceted personalities in modern Indian cinema, was born on 13 January 1963 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. A lot of restrictions since childhood at his aunt's house made him rebellious and instigated poetic inclinations within him.

Mishra's love of and leaning towards theatre was first identified in places like Kalamandir and Rangashri Little Ballet Troupe in Bhopal. To escape the conservative atmosphere at home, he wanted to get out of the city. He got admission in the National School of Drama and moved to Delhi. At the NSD, he got his first opportunity to score the music for the play Mashrikee Hoor. He made his acting breakthrough when German director Fritz Bennewitz noticed him and cast him in the title role in the play Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Mishra helped form the theatre group Act One with founder director NK Sharma and prominent stage actors Manoj Bajpayee, Gajraj Rao and Ashish Vidyarthi. He directed and wrote several plays, including the acclaimed Gagan Damama Bajiyo, based on the legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. The play was first performed in 1994.

In 1996 Mishra joined the Asmita Theatre Group and performed his popular one-man show An Evening With Piyush Mishra. His performances in Swadesh Deepak's Court Marshall and the adaptation of Dario Fo's play Accidental Death Of An Anarchist are still remembered.

By 1999, Mishra had established himself as a theatre director. Along with directing plays such as Comedy Of Terror for Shriram Centre Repertory Company, he presented his solo-act plays at the annual NSD Theatre Festival and Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 1999. Meanwhile, he appeared in a couple of TV series, including Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj (1988) and Rajdhani by Tigmanshu Dhulia (1999).

Mishra made his entry in Hindi cinema with Mani Ratnam's Dil Se (1998), playing a CBI officer. He wrote the dialogues for Rajkumar Santoshi's The Legend Of Bhagat Singh (2001) partly inspired by his own play Gagan Damama Bajiyo. This venture brought him the Zee Cine award for Best Dialogue.

With a career as lyricist, screenwriter and actor beckoning, Mishra moved to Mumbai in 2002. In 2004, he received recognition for his rendition of the character of Kaka in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool. Since then, Mishra has appeared in a number of films, the more memorable among them being his roles in Gulal (2009), Lafangey Parindey (2010), Tere Bin Laden (2010), Rockstar (2011), and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). He also wrote the lyrics and composed the music for Gulal, Gangs of Wasseypur and many other films, including Tashan (2008) and Jalpari (2012). He was awarded the Standout Performance by a Music Director for his work in Gulal.

Mishra received critical acclaim for almost all the films he wrote screenplays and dialogues for, including ...Yahaan (2005), Ghajini (2008), Chittagong (2011) and Agneepath (2012). In recent years he has been seen presenting his range as an actor in Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha (2015), Mudassar Aziz's Happy Bhag Jayegi (2016), and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Pink (2016).

Piyush Mishra is married to Priya Narayanan. They have two children Josh and Jai.