Irshad Kamil is an Indian Hindi/Urdu poet and lyricist. He was born on September 5, 1971 in Malerkotla, Sangrur district, Punjab, India. Irshad was always interested in the arts; from poetry to writing and acting from his early days at the Sanatan Dharam Prem Pracharak High School. His teachers often complimented him for his essay writing skills. In keeping with his father’s wishes, Irshad took up science at the Government College as his father thought that Science was the only opportunity given to people of their class. He began his career by writing scripts for television soaps in 1998. Some of his earlier scripts were for soaps like Na Jaiyao Pardes and Kahan Se Kahan Tak, while his first script was writing the dialogue for Manish Goswami’s serial Kartavya. Soon he wrote the script for Pankaj Kapoor’s serial Drishtaant.

His first songs for Bollywood films was for the movie Chameli (2004), followed by Shabd (2005) and Socha Na Tha (2005). Other films that he wrote the song lyrics include Ahista Ahista (2006), Jab We Met (2007), Aa Dekhen Zara (2009), Khatta Meetha (2010), Action Replayy(2010), Son of Sardar (2012),Cocktail ( 2012), Aashiqui 2(2013) and Raanjhnaa(2013) among others. His songs like Chor Bazari and Aaj Din Chadheya for the movie Love Aaj Kal (2009) won him several awards. He finally received the Filmfare Award for Best Lyrics Naadaan Parindey for Imtiaz Ali’s film Rockstar (2011). Some of the latest films he has been associated with as a writer includes Phata Poster Nikla Hero (2013), Gunday (2014) and Highway (2014).In 2016, he received the Best Lyricist Filmfare Award for Agar tum saath ho.