Aparna Sen was born into a family of film lovers. Her father, the noted film critic, film historian and filmmaker Chidananda Dasgupta, was a founder member of the Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray.

Aparna made her debut as an actress in 1961 while she was still in school, in Satyajit Ray's Two Daughters. She has since acted in the films of several noted film directors including Mrinal Sen, James Ivory, Tapan Sinha and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. She received the Best Actress Award for her performance in Mrinal Sen's Mahaprithibi at the Tashkent International Film Festival.

Aparna made 36 Chowringhee Lane, her first directorial venture, which she wrote herself, in 1981. It won the Grand Prix (The Golden Eagle) at the Manila International Film Festival in 1982 while the Kodak award for Cinematography went to Ashok Mehta for his photography in that film at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 1983. Aparna received the National Award for Best Direction and Ashok Mehta the National Award for Best Cinematographer in India for the same film. Aparna continues to write and direct her films in Calcutta and occasionally acts in films as well. Her latest venture Mr and Mrs Iyer, an English language film starring Rahul Bose and Aparna’s own daughter Konkona Sen Sharma, had a very successful run and won critical acclaim as well as high box office returns. It had a world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival and was showcased at the National Panorama at International Film Festival of India in 2003, where it won critical acclaim. The film has been shown at innumerable film festivals all over the world and has won several major international awards including the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the Hawaii, and Las Palmas Film Festivals. It has also won the National Awards for Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Actress in the year 2003

Retrospective of Aparna’s films have been held in London and Munich and at Nandan in Kolkata.
Her films have been shown in many European film festivals such as London, Creteil, Rome, Carlovy Vary, Las Palmas in Spain, Locarno and Munich; in American/Canadian film festivals such as Reel World in Toronto, Montreal, Hawaii, etc; and in Asian film festivals such as Fucuoca in Japan, Manilla in the Philippines and Pusan in Korea.

Aparna was the founder editor of Sananda, a major Bengali magazine published by the ABP Group until she resigned in 2005.

She then joined SST Media as the Creative Director of Kolkata TV, a 24-hour television channel, which she served till December 2006. She joined SAREGAMA films as the chief creative officer in January 2007.

She has served on several juries at several film festivals - the International Film Festival of India in 1976 where she was in the company of Illustrious filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Christophe Zanussi of Poland and Nagisa Oshima of Japan; the Moscow International Film Festival in 1989 with Andrez Wajda of Poland and Ziri Menzel of the Czech Republic as some of her co-jurors ; the Hawaii International Film Festival in 1991 where she served as the Chairperson of the jury and where Donald Ritchie was one of her co-jurors; the Cairo International Festival in 1999, the Pusan International Film Festival in 2003 where Donald Ritchie was both a co-juror and the chairperson of the jury and the Locarno Film Festival in 2005 where Vittorio Storraro, the illustrious cinematographer, was a co-juror as wells as the chairperson of the jury.

She was a member of the SARC Team of Observers for the Bangladesh Elections in 1990

Aparna has two daughters. Her elder daughter Kamalini Chatterjee is married and lives in the US. Her younger daughter Konkona Sensharma is an actress who has won many awards and accolades for her performances in recent times. Aparna is married to Professor Kalyan Ray who lives in USA and divides her time between the US and India.

The President of India honoured Aparna with the prestigious Padmashree Award in 1986 in recognition of her contribution to cinema.

She was awarded the Satyajit Ray Memorial Millennium Award by the Rotary Club for "Profound Contribution to Indian Cinema" and the "Satyajit Ray" Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cine Central Film Society.