 Born in Kerala, South India. His father and grandfather were also Kathakali artists. At the age of 13, he entered the prestigious Kerala Kalamandalam Institute where he studied with two of the greatest Kathakali masters – Gopi Ashan and Ramankutti Nair Ashan. After 8 years of intensive training he received his diploma and graduated - thus having the honour of preceding his name with that of his school’s. He remained for a further 3 years in Kerala, performing major roles. He then joined the International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi as major artist and teacher. In 1978, he was invited by the Centre Mandapa to come to Paris to be resident teacher and performer. At the end of his contract, he decided to make Paris his permanent home base. Apart from giving regular classes and work sessions, as well as performing, Karunakaran collaborated with Peter Brook’s actors during the preparation of his famous Mahabharata and Measure for Measure at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and worked as well with actors from Ariane Mnouchkin’s Théâtre du Soleil, the Théâtre Populaire Romand in Switzerland as well as marionnettists in the Festival of Marionettes in Charleville-Mézières, to name but a few.
 He has taught and performed in numerous countries in Europe, as well as in North and South America. Outside of India, Karunakaran is one of the few artists and teachers of kathakali of Indian origin. Thanks to the fact that he was taught in the traditional way, he is able to perform every single role in the vast kathakali repertoire – masculine and feminine, Gods and demons etc.
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