Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet, playwright and director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including some in Tamil and Hindi; while he was also screenwriter for 52 films. He has won three Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Awards.

Early life
Tanikella Bharani's ancestors includes poets and literary figures of Telugu literature. Diwakarla Venkatavadhani and Viswanatha Satyanarayana were his grand uncles. Divakarla Tirupati Sastry, one of the Telugu poet duo Tirupati Venkata Kavulu, was his great-grand-uncle.

He was born into a Telugu Brahmin family. He is fluent in Telugu, English, Hindi, Tamil.

He is a religious Hindu who is known for singing devotional songs in praise of Sri Shiva and Devi Parvati, and propagates to his fellow Hindus to not just read the Bhagavad Gita but to follow what it teaches.