Thanuja Puttaswamy (తనుజా పుట్టస్వామి), also known as Thanuja Gowda, is an Indian television and film actress born on 5 March 1992 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Her father Puttaswamy is a businessman and her mother Savithri is a homemaker; she has two elder sisters, Anuja (an advocate) and Pooja (an engineer). She graduated from Bangalore University. She made her acting debut with the Kannada horror thriller 6-5=2 (2013), which was also dubbed into Telugu as Chitram Kadu Nizam. Her major breakthrough came with the Telugu daily serial Muddha Mandaram (Zee Telugu, 2014–2019), where she played the beloved lead character Parvathi opposite Pavan Sai across more than 1,500 episodes, making her a household name in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. She also appeared in the Telugu serial Agnipariksha and the Tamil serial Siva Manasula Sakthi. In 2025, she entered Bigg Boss Telugu Season 9 as a celebrity contestant and became one of its strongest players, consistently winning tasks and building deep connections with the audience. She finished as the first runner-up, losing narrowly to commoner Kalyan Padala in the grand finale on 21 December 2025.
Playing the lead role of Parvathi in the blockbuster Telugu daily serial Muddha Mandaram (Zee Telugu, 2014–2019, 1500+ episodes); Kannada horror film 6-5=2 (2013); finishing as first runner-up on Bigg Boss Telugu 9 (2025).