Sheela was born as Clara Abraham in a Syro-Malabar Catholic Nasrani family in Thrissur, Kerala. She made her debut in Tamil film Paasom opposite M. G. Ramachandran. Her first Malayalam movie was Bhagyajathakam opposite Sathyan. She has acted in more than 400 films. Sheela has won the Indian National Film Award for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Malayalam movie Akale. She has also won three Kerala State Film Awards in the Best Actress category. She along with Prem Nazir holds the Guinness World Record for acting together as heroine and hero respectively in 107 films.