Jayamala was born on 28 February 1959, in Dakshina Kannada district. Her father G Omaiah is an agriculturist and mother Kamalamma, a homemaker. She has six sisters and a brother. They moved to Chikmagalur in 1963 after being displaced due to the harbour work in Panambur. She was married twice. Her first marriage was with Kannada Film actor Tiger Prabhakar and later got divorced. Her second marriage was with cinematographer H M Ramachandra and the couple has a daughter Soundarya Jaimala, an aspiring actress.

Jayamala is a multifaceted personality in the Kannada film industry having been a leading lady in the eighties and later turned producer making many award-winning artistic films. Jayamala has acted in several movies in Kannada, Tulu, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. She has acted with several big Kannada stars like Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Rajkumar, Shankar Nag and Prabhakar. She had several hits like Shankar Guru, Giri Kanye, etc. Her first production venture Thaayi Saaheba was directed by Girish Kasaravalli and it won a National award. Jayamala received a special jury award for her brilliant performance in the film. She has also produced a children's film Thuttoori which won both National and State Government awards.

As a treasurer in the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, the actress has taken active interest in many activities of the Kannada film producers association. In 2008 Jayamala became the first woman president of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC).

Jayamala created history of sorts when she became the only actress in the Indian film industry to be conferred a doctorate for writing a thesis, She wrote a thesis on the rehabilitation of rural woman in Karnataka. The thesis required her to tour many places in Karnataka and also scrutinise many documents. The doctorate was conferred by the Bangalore University on 18 January 2008 and presented by former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

She was at the center of a controversy when she claimed that she touched the Lord Ayyappa idol in Sabarimala. Women from the age 10–50 are banned from entering Sabarimala. It created a furor in India and led to ideological warfare in Indian media and courts. Jayamala has said she regretted her action, but clarified that she was pushed into the shrine by a crowd of devotees. The Supreme Priest of Sabarimala Kantararu Maheshwararu had dismissed the actress's statement as a figment of her imagination.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Kannada films

Tamil