Ashish Vidyarthi was born on 19 June 1965 in Delhi, India to a Malayali father from Kannur (Kerala), and a Bengali mother from Rajasthan. His mother Reba Vidyarthi (Née: Chattopadhyay) was a Kathak guru, while his father Govind Vidyarthi is an expert in cataloging and archiving vanishing Performing Arts of India for the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He attended National School of Drama until 1990 and associated himself with another theatre group, Act One, run by N. K. Sharma.
