Menon hails from Kozhikode in Kerala, but currently lives in Mumbai. Her father served the Indian Air Force while her mother remained a housewife. She studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, East Hill, Kozhikode. She competed in the Miss India contest in 1994 and finished second runner up behind Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai. She became the first Gladrags female super model in 1994 (Kelly Dorjee was the male super model) and then, Miss Asia Pacific runner up in 1994 in Manila Cebu Island, Philippines. She is 5 feet, 7 inches tall.

She started her career as an actress in Anaswaram (1991), a Malayalam film, directed by Jomon, as the heroine of Mammootty, after which she focused on modeling. She subsequently won several pageants before returning to movies. She returned to Malayalam through Thantra and then went on to do famous Malayalam films such as Keerthi Chakra (2006) and the award winning Paradesi. Her performance as Sarojini - a middle-class woman who fights against extreme odds - in the film, Madhya Venal earned her a special mention by Jury Chairman Bahman Ghobadi - famous Iranian director at the International Film Festival of Kerala.

She made her Bollywood debut with the film, Prithvi (1997). Though she has appeared in many flop and average Bollywood movies, Some of her better known films include, Asoka (2001), Maqbool (2003) and Corporate (2006).

In 2010, she won the Kerala State Government's Best Actress for her outstanding portrayal of Cheeru, a village woman in the film Paleri Manikyam : Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha directed by Renjith. She also won Mathrubhumi-Amrita TV Special Jury Award and Asianet Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same film. She recently completed the movie, Penn Pattanam.

Besides working in films, she has anchored several TV, stage and film awards shows. Her style and panache made her one of Kerala's popular TV anchors through the musical programme - Star Wars on Kairali TV in 2008. She won Asian Television's Best Anchor award for the same program. In Hindi, she was a host of a Group Dance based show named Razzmatazz on Zee TV along with actor Arshad Warsi. The next television show which she did was Dancing Queen in 2008. At present, she is anchoring the Malayalam reality show, Honeymoon Travels on Surya TV.