Janhvi Kapoor comes from an eminent family of actors and filmmakers who have been famous faces in this industry for a long time.

Kapoor's father is an actor and a producer. Her mother was a renowned actress who acted in Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, and Malayalam movies.

Actor Arjun Kapoor is her half-sibling, while actor Sonam Kapoor is her cousin. Actors Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor are her uncles.

Kapoor completed her schooling at Ecole Mondiale World School in Mumbai. Her mother was not keen on Kapoor joining the film industry and wanted her to become a doctor instead. But Kapoor insisted on following her mother's footsteps.

She went on to complete an acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in California. After returning to India, Kapoor made her acting debut with Dhadak (2018), with Ishaan Khatter playing the male lead and directed by Shashank Khaitan under the Dharma Productions banner. The film grossed over Rs.100 crores worldwide within two weeks of its release.

Kapoor's performance in the movie won her the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut in 2019.

Her next screen appearance was in Ghost Stories (2020), a horror anthology film. It comprised four short films, each directed by a different director. Kapoor played the role of a young nurse in the short story directed by Zoya Akhtar. Ghost Stories was released on Netflix.

Kapoor played the title role in her next movie Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020), a biopic on aviator Gunjan Saxena. To live up to the demands of the biopic, she underwent physical training and prepared herself to imitate the body language of an air force officer. The film got an OTT release and premiered on Netflix, and it received mixed reviews from critics.

In Roohi (2021), she essayed a double role for the first time in her career. It was a comedy horror film where she acted opposite Rajkummar Rao. The film received a theatrical release after much delay due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following year, Kapoor appeared in two films. In Good Luck Jerry (2022), directed by debutant Siddharth Sen, she again played the titular lead role, and it was a black comedy crime film that premiered on Disney+ Hotstar.

Good Luck Jerry was the Hindi adaptation of the Tamil movie Kolamavu Kokila (2018).

Her other film Mili (2022), was a survival thriller. In the film, her character Mili gets locked in a freezer, and she does everything possible to fight against the freezing cold and keep herself alive. It was a remake of the Malayalam movie Helen (2019).

Mili was produced by her father and Zee Studios and directed by Mathukutty Xavier, who had directed the original Malayalam version of the movie. While the film received mixed reviews from the critics, they praised Kapoor's performance in the titular role.

Apart from films, Kapoor appeared in a music video in 2020 for the promotional song of Angrezi Medium (2020).

Kapoor is the brand ambassador of Nykaa Fashion.