Suriya was born to actor Sivakumar and his wife Lakshmi in Chennai, but brought up in Coimbatore. He is the eldest of three children; his younger brother is actor Karthi Sivakumar and he has a younger sister named Brindha Sivakumar. He attended PSBB School and St. Bede's School in Chennai and graduated from Loyola College with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Suriya is married to actress Jyothika, with whom he worked with in as many as seven films. The couple, after being together for several years, got married on 11 September 2006. They have two children, a daughter named Diya (born 10 August 2007) and a son named Dev (born 7 June 2010).

The Best 5 Movies of Surya 

1.Soorarai Pottru

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) recently announced its list of winners for 2021. Suriya's Soorarai Pottru won the Best Film award with the actor winning Best Performance Male (Feature) for his role in the film. On Sunday, September 5, a video of the Jai Bhim actor unboxing the award at his home went viral on the Internet. While Suriya is carefully unboxing the award, his wife Jyotika cheers for him.

On August 20, IFFM unveiled its list of winners for 2021. Suriya, who won the Best Performance Male (Feature) award for his role as Maara in Soorarai Pottru thanked his team and his director Sudha Kongara. Based on the life of retired Army Captain GR Gopinath, who founded the low-cost airline, Air Deccan, the movie also won the Best Film award. On Sunday, September 5, the Singham 3 actor's production house, 2D Entertainment, shared a video where Suriya can be seen unboxing IFFM's Best Film award at his residence. In the video, we can see Suriya carefully opening the box while his wife Jyotika claps and cheers for him throughout the video. In the end, Suriya thanks his entire team of Soorarai Pottru for all the hard work.

2.Vaaranam Aayiram

Surya (Surya Sivakumar) is away at war as his father, Krisnan (also Surya) dies of lung cancer. As Surya sits on a plane in combat gear heading into battle, he reminisces about his father's influence in his life. The film opens with the father Krishnan's romance with Malini (Simram), which in turn is contrasted with the son's aggressive courting of an engineering student Meghana (Sameera Reddy) from a train ride in Tamil Nadu to her graduate studies in Berkeley. The romance is swiftly followed by an extended period of professional and personal uncertainty, in which the son turns back to father figures to help him get back on his feet and seek out his true calling. Well made, though overlong film, reportedly autobiographical about the director's own relationship with his father.

3.Pithamagan

Chittan, a social outcast, has grown up in a cemetery. A drug dealer finds him a job in a cannabis farm. In prison, he meets a conman, Shakti. This friendship transforms him from his stony existence.

Pithamagan whirls around four characters. Chithan (Vikram) who is orphaned at a young age, devoid of all human contacts lives on his animal instincts and ekes out a living as a graveyard caretaker.

He seems to exhibit behaviour consistent with autism spectrum disorders. Gomathy (Sangeetha), a petty ganja seller, who pities Chithan’s condition, gets him a job at the ganja fields of the main villain. Sakthi (Surya), the conman, cons Manju (Laila), a polytechnic student but does not get away with it.

Sakthi meets Chithan in jail and takes pity on him and befriends with him. It is Sakthi’s affection that melts Chithan’s stony heart. Later, Sakthi gets into trouble with an influential narcotics dealer and the story moves slowly into a gory and fitting finale. 

4.Mounam Pesiyadhe

Mounam Pesiyadhe movie is about Gautham (Surya) who is a restaurant owner. He dislikes the idea of young couples flirting with each other in the name of "love". His close friend Kannan (Nandha), on the other hand, is just the opposite. He introduces himself as an employed bachelor to every girl he meets on the road.

Nanda falls in love with a young girl Maha (Maha). Unfortunately, Kannan's marriage is arranged with his cousin Sandhya (Trisha Krishnan). Neither Kannan nor Sandhya are interested in the proposal. When Gautham talks to Sandhya on behalf of Kannan and explains her that his friend is in love with someone else, Sandhya tells Gautham that she too is not interested in marrying Kannan. She even says that her dream is to marry someone like Gautham.

Gautham's disbelief in love fades out after meeting Sandhya. He falls in love with her. But, there is an interesting twist in the movie and it is not the usual climax you might expect to see. 

5.Sillunu Oru Kadhal

The story is simply about a doting wife who comes to know that her equally doting husband had a past, which involved a compelling romance. Kundavi (Jyothika) and her friends in a quaint village near Tenkasi decide that love marriage is the way to a happy and contended life. While her friends settle for rustic nobodies, Kundavi doesn't find her Mr Right in that village. So she is pushed into a normal marriage that she doesn't want. On the other hand, there is Gautham (Suriya) who is also strangely not keen in the marriage. But the invisible string of fate through the knot of marriage ties them together.