Pooja Kannan Biography (2026): Age, Family, Career & More

Last updated: September 2026

There’s a particular kind of pressure in following a famous sibling into the same industry — comparisons are automatic, and independence has to be earned twice as hard. Pooja Kannan has handled that by doing something most star-siblings don’t: building a second, entirely separate career as a trained counsellor alongside her acting.

Table of Contents

Snapshot

Snap	Shots
Full Name	Pooja Kannan
Profession	Actress, Dancer, Family & Relationship Counsellor
Date of Birth	April 21, 1997
Age (2026)	29
Birthplace	Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu, India
Community	Badaga
Marital Status	Married
Husband	Vineeth Sivakumar

Growing Up in Sai Pallavi’s Shadow — and Stepping Out of It

Pooja is the younger sister of Sai Pallavi, one of South Indian cinema’s most respected actresses. Their father, Kannan, was a Central Excise officer and former footballer; their mother, Radha Kannan, was a dancer — which goes some way toward explaining why both daughters gravitated toward performance. The sisters’ physical resemblance is strong enough that fans routinely mistake them for twins, something Pooja has had to navigate publicly since before she even started acting.

In 2021, Sai Pallavi posted an emotional note on the day of Pooja’s acting debut, recalling how her “little brat” of a sister used to fake being sick to skip school — a small detail that says more about their closeness than any red-carpet photo does.

Learning Filmmaking Before Acting

Before stepping in front of the camera, Pooja worked as an assistant director under filmmaker A.L. Vijay — the same person who would go on to produce her debut film. That sequencing wasn’t incidental: it gave her a working understanding of production before she had to perform in front of one.

The Debut That Wasn’t a Theatrical Release

Pooja’s feature debut, Chithirai Sevvaanam (2021), didn’t get a cinema release — it premiered directly on Zee5 on December 3, 2021. Directed by “Stunt” Silva and produced by A.L. Vijay, the film cast her as Aishwarya, a medical student whose life spirals after a private video of her is filmed and circulated without consent, sparking a search when she goes missing. It’s a heavier subject than most star-sibling debuts take on, and critics singled out her performance as the film’s strongest element even as the film itself got mixed reviews.

Marrying Vineeth Sivakumar

Pooja got engaged to her longtime partner Vineeth on January 21, 2024, sharing the news with a caption calling him her “ray of sunshine.” The couple married in September 2024 in a traditional Badaga-community ceremony in Ooty — a wedding that went viral largely because of a video showing Sai Pallavi dancing joyfully during the celebrations.

Career Beyond the Screen

What sets Pooja apart from most actor-siblings is that acting isn’t her only professional identity. She’s also a trained family and relationship counsellor, working on communication and emotional well-being alongside her entertainment work — an unusual combination that’s earned her a following outside the typical film-industry audience.

As of 2026, she hasn’t announced a follow-up film project since her 2021 debut, though she remains active on social media and in her counselling practice.

Net Worth

Pooja’s net worth isn’t officially disclosed. Estimates place it between ₹2–10 crore, drawn from her acting work, counselling practice, and social media collaborations — figures that should be read as unverified estimates rather than confirmed data.

Social Media

Platform	Handle
Instagram	@poojakannan_97

Interesting Facts

Her mother was a professional dancer, which explains the family’s shared interest in performance
Worked as an assistant director before acting, under the same person who later produced her debut
Her debut film released directly on Zee5, not in theatres
Has built a genuinely separate second career as a relationship counsellor, unusual for someone from a film family

FAQs

Q. Is Pooja Kannan related to Sai Pallavi?

Yes, she’s Sai Pallavi’s younger sister.

Q. What was Pooja Kannan’s debut film?

Chithirai Sevvaanam (2021), released on Zee5, where she played Aishwarya.

Q. Who is Pooja Kannan married to?

Vineeth Sivakumar; they got engaged in January 2024 and married in September 2024.

Q. What does Pooja Kannan do besides acting?

She works as a trained family and relationship counsellor.

Conclusion

Pooja Kannan’s story isn’t really about outrunning her sister’s fame — it’s about building enough of a separate identity (counselling, a distinct filmography, her own relationship story) that the comparison stops being the whole point. One acting credit in, that project already seems to be working.

This biography is compiled and verified by the TheWifesBio editorial team using publicly available information. Have a correction? Contact us.

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Pooja Kannan: Biography, Age, Family, Career & More