Zarina Wahab was born in the port city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. She was a student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, where she was a batchmate of the likes of Shabana Azmi and Rita Bhaduri.

When she met director Raj Kapoor at the FTII, the showman was not impressed at all with Zarina’s looks. This led her to work on her appearance and engage socially at parties and other events in the industry. Her efforts paid off and she got a role in Ishk Ishk Ishk (1974) directed by Dev Anand, which, incidentally, was also Azmi's debut film.

Zarina Wahab got her big break with the film Chitchor (1976), a romantic musical directed by Basu Chatterjee, in which she starred with Amol Palekar and Vijayendra Ghatge.

Apart from Hindi films, she has done films in various languages like Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. She appeared in the film Gharaonda (1977), directed by Bhimsain Khurana, alongside Jalal Agha, Amol Palekar and Dr Shreeram Lagoo. All these films proved her versatility as an actress.

In the year 2009, she made a comeback in Malayalam films with Calendar (2009), directed by Mahesh and starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Navya Nair. Her role was appreciated by critics and fans alike. The following year, she played the role of Rizwan Khan’s mother in the Karan Johar film My Name Is Khan (2010) starring Shah Rukh Khan. The film fetched her many accolades and appreciation from the masses. It also won her the The Global Indian Film And Television Honors for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Wahab has also been appearing in numerous television serials like Maayka, Zaara, Virrudh and Yahaan Mein Ghar Ghar Kheli. Some of her recent releases include Chalk N Duster (2016) and Dil Dhadakne Do (2015). In 2019, she appeared in a biopic on Narendra Modi titled PM Narendra Modi, in which she played Modi's mother Heeraben.

Zarina Wahab is married to actor-producer Aditya Pancholi, with whom she has a son Sooraj, also an actor, and a daughter, Sana.