Kumud Mishra is an Indian actor, predominantly working in Hindi cinema. His father was a soldier in the Indian Army, which led Mishra to attend the Rashtriya Military School in Belgaum, Karnataka. After finishing school, he moved to Bhopal for his Bachelor of Arts degree.

Mishra always had a passion for the performing arts. School plays, directed by his teachers Pathare and Janardhan, were a source of inspiration for his acting career.

When Mishra moved to Bhopal, he became a Bharat Bhavan Cultural Centre member. There, he performed on stage with Sachin Tiwari, John Martin, Alakh Nandan, Bansi Kaul, and Satyabrata Rout, among others.

Following his tenure in Bhopal, Mishra finished his education at the National School of Drama in Delhi, earning his diploma in acting.

In 1995, Mishra made his television debut on Swabhimaan (1995), which was broadcasted on the DD National channel. His first movie, Sardari Begum (1996), marked the beginning of his career in cinema.

He played the role of Captain Kabir in the war action movie 1971 (2007), which won the National Film Awards for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Soon after, his career took off when he played a junior version of Rishi Kapoor's role in the sports drama Patiala House (2011).

The same year, he starred alongside Ranbir Kapoor in the award-winning romantic-musical Rockstar (2011).

Mishra has since acted in supporting roles for several award-winning films, including Filmistaan (2012), Raanjhanaa (2013), Rustom (2016), Airlift (2016), Sultan (2016), Jolly LLB 2 (2017), and Sooryavanshi (2021).

For his portrayal of Mehmood in Filmistaan (2012), Mishra won the IBNLive Movie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Negative Role.

In 2019, Mishra starred in the critically-acclaimed crime film Article 15 (2019) opposite Ayushmann Khurrana. For his role as Kisan Jatav, Mishra received two nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

The next year, Mishra starred in Thappad (2020) alongside Ratna Pathak Shah, where they played the lead character's parents. Mishra was nominated three times for the Best Supporting Actor category for his role in the movie.

Mishra played the titular role in the drama film Ram Singh Charlie (2020), for which he was nominated at the FOI Online Awards in 2021 for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Mishra joined the cast of Netflix's spy action movie Mission Majnu (2023). However, that was not his first foray into acting on OTT platforms, as he previously appeared in the Amazon Prime Video series Tandav (2021).

Despite the late start to Mishra's Bollywood career, he has been a prominent presence on stage for almost 20 years at Prithvi Theatre.

In 2013, he co-founded the theatrical group 'D for Drama' with two other members. His group produced the play Dhumrapaan, which was chosen for the 2017 META Awards.