Ayesha Takia was born on April 10, 1986 in Mumbai and grew up there. Her father Nishit is a Gujarati and mother Faridah, an anglo-Indian Muslim, she is the elder among two daughters. Ayesha attended St. Anthony's High School but never went to college because she entered the world of entertainment at very young age. Ayesha grew up speaking English at home and she worked hard to learn Hindi and Telugu for her roles in movies.

Ayesha's favorite actors from childhood are Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan. Her favorite actresses are Sridevi and Rani Mukherji. She finds that there are many good directors but she has always liked Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Ayesha started her career with the "I am a Complan Girl!" advertising campaign and she also appeared in a music video, Falguni Pathak's Meri Chunarii Udd Udd Jaye, when she was fifteen. The complan ad campaign also had Shahid Kapoor as a child actor. She then appeared in the video, Shake It Daddy, when she was sixteen, which brought her to the attention of the movie industry, and a few film offers followed. She signed a contract for Socha Na Tha, then for Taarzan: The Wonder Car. However, delays in making Socha Na Tha meant that Taarzan released first and was therefore her "debut" film. She won the Filmfare Best Debut Award in 2004 for her performance in Taarzan: The Wonder Car. She earned critical acclaim for her performance in Nagesh Kukunoor's Dor with Taran Adarsh of Indiafm.com writing ,". Also, she accepted of non-glamorous role, which most actors don't do at the start of their career.