Mehriban Khanlarova was born on 12 August 1967 in Baku. She graduated from School No. 190 in the Yasamal district in 1984. She then worked for two years at a Baku toy factory. In 1986 she enrolled at the faculty of drama and film acting of the Azerbaijan State Institute of Arts. In 1990 she completed the course led by the prominent actor and People's Artist Malik Dadashov. For a time she performed in television plays as a freelance artist, and appeared at the 'Azerbaijanfilm' studio in the films 'Outsiders' (Flora), 'The Ghazal Singer' (the secretary) and 'The Happy Ones' (the singer's wife). At the invitation of Turkey's TRT 1 television channel, she played lead roles there in the television films 'Our Neighbourhood' (Sada) and 'Genies and Fairies' (Leyla). On 1 January 1998 she was accepted as an actress into the troupe of the Academic National Drama Theatre, where she has since taken on numerous roles. During her years at the theatre she also appeared on Azerbaijan State Television in Ilyas Afandiyev's television play 'Destroyed Diaries' (Angel).
