A college drop-out who came to Mumbai in the early 1990s with dreams of becoming an actor, Dinesh Prabhakar, who is today a multi-talented artist, began working as an assistant in a medical shop. Being inspired by Mohanlal's performance in the movie Aryan, Dinesh decided that he would become an actor. However, after coming to Mumbai he realized that it was certainly not a cakewalk and struggled to make his ends meet.
Dinesh strived hard for the first six years in Mumbai, taking up odd jobs to eventually enter the world of advertising. During his time in advertising, he also worked as a voice-over artist for actors such as Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan in the Malayalam versions of Pepsi and Coca-Cola TV commercials.
It was in 2002 that he made his debut in the movie Meesa Madhavan and has since then appeared in movies such as Thalappavu (2008), Matinee (2012), Money Ratnam (2014), Love 24x7 (2015), and Jacobinte Swargarajyam (2016).
Before becoming an actor, Dinesh served as a dubbing artist and has more than 100 film credits to his name. He has lent his voice to artists such as Narain, Nishanth Sagar, Saiju Kurup, Makarand Deshpande, Nagarjuna, Prabhas, and Prabhu Deva. The actor has also worked as a casting director for films such as Thira, Jacobinte Swargarajyam, and Lukka Chuppi.
In 2012, Dinesh appeared in the Hindi movie Madras Cafe and he was next seen in Anu Menon's Waiting (2016). In 2017, he starred in Raja Krishna Menon's Chef which features Saif Ali Khan and Padmapriya in lead roles.