Meghana Gaonkar was born in Gulbarga, a town in north Karnataka where her mother hails from. She did her schooling from Sharanbasaveshwara residential school in Gulbarga and later completed her Bachelors in commerce degree from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. She obtained her master's degree in English literature from Bangalore University and a diploma in film acting and making from Adarsha Film & TV Institute, Bangalore.

As an evidence to her acting instincts she was crowned as Miss Garden City Bangalore and Miss Beautiful Smile in 2003 and thereon started her career by hosting a series of popular shows in most of the Kannada channels and gained popularity and a huge fan following from shows like Kuniyona Baara, Star Dish Dishum, Preethiya Kannadiga, etc.

Meghana Gaonkar is known for her dancing skills in the sandalwood industry for her dances like bharatnatyam, kathak and most of the western forms. She acquired all the required traits and talent before she launched herself into the sandalwood arena, as an assistant instructor for over seven years with Shiamak Davar’s Dance Company. She has trained dancers and has also performed major dance shows with the core troupe in India and Abroad. She also performed in the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in 2006. Meghana Gaonkar also plays the veena, piano and a bit of the violin.

Before Gaonkar entered commercial films, she did numerous English and Kannada theatre plays at Rangashankara and Alliance Franchise, Bangalore.

Meghana Gaonkar’s career path to sandalwood has been a long journey in acquiring the required talent and completing the puzzle. Starting from being crowned as Miss Bangalore and Miss Smile in 2003, to hosting shows in leading Kannada channels, to a professional dancer from Shiamak Davar’s and a theatre artist. Meghana Gaonkar has completed her puzzle of being a perfect artist and very importantly her passion to be successful artist is so evident when she has successfully complemented her career with the required education by completing her Diploma in Film acting and making.

Meghana Gaonkar is currently working in Kannada films as a main lead. She started her film career with ‘Nam arealondina’ (2010) directed by Aravind Kaushik and was later nominated for various awards in best actress and newcomer category. Her second movie was ‘Vinayaka Geleyara Balaga’ (2011) opposite Vijaya Raghavendra, third ‘Tuglak’ (2012) and the fourth being ‘Charminar’ (2012) opposite lovely Prem, directed by R. Chandru.

Meghana Gaonkar besides her work, her hobbies are also as educative as herself by writing short stories. She has written 18 short stories and plans to write a novel. Apart from this her hobbies include traveling, music, reading and exploring new restaurants and places.

Meghana Gaonkar has always been a firm believer in a quote saying "If you need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm"

Gaonkar began her career as a television actress. She made her big screen appearance together with a debutant team of actors and director in Nam Areali Ondina (2010). Her role of Chinnu won her rave reviews though the film failed to perform well commercially. Next, she paired with Vijay Raghavendra in the multi-starrer film Vinayaka Geleyara Balaga in 2011. The same year saw her in the low-budget film Thuglak alongside a new comer. Noted film maker R. Chandru cast her in his forthcoming film Charminar opposite Prem Kumar. She has signed a Mythological film, Bhakta Shankara which is currently under production.