Ananya Panday (অনন্যা পাণ্ডে) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. Born to actor Chunky Panday, she began her acting career in 2019 with roles in the romantic comedies Student of the Year 2 and Pati Patni Aur Woh. These performances earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Panday was born on 30 October 1998 to actor Chunky Panday and costume designer Bhavana Pandey (née Khosla) in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Her mother is Punjabi while her father is part Punjabi. She has a younger sister named Rysa. Her grandfather Sharad Panday, was an Indian heart surgeon. Her uncle Chikki Panday is a businessperson and her aunt Deanne Pandey is a wellness coach, and their children, Alanna Pandey is a Youtuber, and Ahaan Panday is an actor. She has described her childhood as "very privileged and cushioned", and has said that she aspired to be an actress from a young age.

Pandey studied at Dhirubhai Ambani International School until 2017. She participated in Vanity Fair's Le Bal des débutantes event in Paris in 2017. When asked if she missed out on higher education, Panday described film sets as her film school.

Panday made her acting debut in 2019 with the teen film Student of the Year 2, co-starring Tiger Shroff and Tara Sutaria, which was produced by Karan Johar's studio Dharma Productions. Writing for Scroll.in, Nandini Ramnath felt that Panday showed potential in an unremarkable film. The film did not perform well at the box-office. Panday next starred in Pati Patni Aur Woh (2019), a remake of the 1978 film of the same name, alongside Kartik Aaryan and Bhumi Pednekar. She played a secretary who indulges in an affair with a married man, which was portrayed by Ranjeeta Kaur in the original. India Today mentioned that Panday is "bland and boring with no spice." With a worldwide gross of ₹1.15 billion (US$14 million), it emerged as a commercial success. Panday won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance in both Student of the Year 2 and Pati Patni Aur Woh.

Panday has frequently combated negative attention and online trolling, for being a beneficiary of nepotism within the Hindi film industry. She said, "It isn't as easy as people say it is. If you have access and don't have the talent to back it up, people won't invest their money in you. Having said that, I do believe nepotism exists and it exists in all industries, not just Bollywood." She received backlash for comments made during CNN's 2019 Newcomers Roundtable, where she spoke about her struggles as a star kid, noting that her father had never been on Johar's talk show Koffee with Karan as a sign of his limited success. Her remarks prompted a now-viral response from actor Siddhant Chaturvedi, in which he highlighted the disparity between insiders and outsiders in the film industry. The Hollywood Reporter India reported that after the intense social media trolling she received for being a nepo baby, "all the noise and early backlash faded once she proved herself with films like Gehraiyaan (2022) and CTRL (2024)".