Vinaya Prakash ( Bhat), (22 November 1967) also credited as Vinaya Prasad, is an Indian actress known for her work in Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu films, as well as television serials.
Vinaya Prasad hails from Udupi district of Karnataka state. Prasad made her film debut with a small role in G. V. Iyer's Madhwacharya in 1986. She worked in smaller character roles before playing the leading lady in Ganeshana Maduve opposite Anant Nag. The film was a huge success and she went on to act in many more films in not only Kannada but also Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil . Some of her notable Kannada films include Ganeshana Maduve, Neenu Nakkare Haalu Sakkare, Gauri Ganesha, Mysore Jaana and Suryodaya. She starred in a supporting role in Manichitrathazhu, opposite Mohanlal. In Tamil, Prasad has acted as the heroine in the movie Thaikulame Thaikulame with Pandiarajan and Urvashi starring. In Telugu, her movies include Indra, Donga Dongadi and Andhrudu, for which her performance won a lot of praise.
After a successful career as a lead actress, Prasad switched over to character roles. Prasad is also an effective compere and singer. Prasad has compered several important events like Vasantha Habba in Nrityagram and the annual Dasara procession in Mysore. She has starred in the longest-running and most popular daily soap opera on Malayalam TV, Sthree, which aired from late 1998 to mid 2000 on Asianet television channel. The popularity of this soap made her a household name among Malayalis. In 2006, she returned to the Malayalam small screen to reprise her role as Indu in the sequel to the original Sthree, also named, Sthree.
Vinaya is from the Udupi district in Karnataka and was raised in Udupi. In 1988, she married V. R. K. Prasad, a director and editor of Kannada films, who died at a young age.
In 2002, Vinaya married Jyotiprakash after they met during the making of the television series Sanjeevani. The couple currently resides in Bangalore with her husband and daughter Prathama Prasad. Jyotiprakash has a son named Jai Atre, from his previous marriage, who is into film direction and screenwriting in Mumbai.