Kailas Menon is an Indian film composer who works predominantly in Malayalam films and commercials. After working as a composer for television commercials for more than a decade,^[1] he debuted as a composer in feature films with director Jayaraj's Pakarnnatam. His first mainstream release happened much later with Theevandi,^[2] for which he earned his first Filmfare Award.^[3]

Kailas was born in Thrissur, Kerala on 30 May 1986. He learned carnatic music for eight years and was a self-trained keyboard player. He completed his schooling from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Thrissur. He graduated in Visual Communications from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, and pursued a course in sound engineering from SAE Institute, Chennai.^[4]

Menon had his first release, the music album Snehathode, at the age of 16.^[4]

His professional career began much later, when he joined as an assistant to Malayalam film composer Ouseppachan and subsequently became a sound engineer for Gopi Sunder.

This was followed by a decade-long stint as a composer of television commercials, having scored for over 1000 commercials for brands like Rolls-Royce, Samsung, Toshiba, Unilever, and Bhima Jewellers.^[1]

He debuted as a film composer with Jayaraj's off-beat film Pakarnnattam. This was followed by Starring Pournami , which was shelved midway. His first mainstream release happened much later, with Theevandi. The song "Jeevamshamayi", rendered by Shreya Ghoshal and K. S. Harisankar, earned him a Filmfare Award.^[3]

In 2019, he launched his own music label, Kailas Menon Productions, and the first film album released from the label was Finals.^[2]

Menon married Annapoorna Lekha Pillai, a lawyer at the Kerala High Court, on 8 December 2014. Their son, Samanyu Rudra, was born on 17 August 2020.^[5]