He won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam for "Action Hero Biju" in 2016. Pauly was born into a Catholic Christian family from Aluva, Ernakulam on 11 October 1984. Nivin's father, Pauly Bonaventure, was a mechanic who worked in Aarau, Switzerland and his mother was a nurse at a Swiss hospital. Pauly, who was brought up in Kerala, visited them in Aarau during his vacations, where they stayed for 25 years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT), Angamaly in 2006. Pauly was employed at Infosys in Bangalore through campus placements and worked as a software engineer from 2006 to 2008. However, he resigned and returned home after his father's death. He married his long time girlfriend Rinna Joy on 28 August 2010, at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Aluva. They were classmates at FISAT. They have a son, born in 2012 and a daughter born in 2017. Pauly applied for the audition of "Malarvaadi Arts Club", but was not included in the 12 shortlisted actors. However, when one dropped out, he was given a second chance to the audition, and got his debut role. Since then, he had acted in the films "The Metro" and "Sevenes", and had brief appearances in "Traffic" and "Spanish Masala". He appeared in music video "Nenjodu Cherthu" from the album Yuvvh, what "The Hindu" called "a hugely popular" , and became a viral hit on YouTube. The 2012 film "Thattathin Marayathu" was his acting vehicle, which became the biggest hit of the year. After "Thattathin Marayathu", he was called "the current youth sensation" and "hot property". He received offers from directors including Sathyan Anthikad, Rajesh Pillai, Aashiq Abu and Shyamaprasad. Pauly made his debut in Tamil with the bilingual film "Neram". His other Malayalam films in 2013 include "Anju Sundarikal" and Sunil Ibrahim's "Arikil Oraal". In 2014, he appeared in Abrid Shine's directorial debut "1983", where he played the role of Rameshan. It was followed with debutant Jude Anthany Joseph's romantic comedy "Ohm Shanthi Oshaana", in which he portrayed the role Giri.