Advani was born on 31 July 1992 in Bombay, Maharashtra. Her father Jagdeep Advani is a Sindhi Hindu businessman. Her mother Genevieve Jaffrey is a teacher. Her maternal father was a Muslim from Lucknow. Her maternal grandmother was a Christian of Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, and Spanish ancestry. She was born as Alia Advani. She changed her first name to Kiara before the release of her first movie "Fugly" in 2014. She has said that Salman Khan suggested her to change the name from Alia to Kiara. 