Kannada poetry is poetry written in the Kannada language spoken in Karnataka. Karnataka is the land that gave birth to eight Jnanapeeth award winners, the highest honour bestowed for Indian literature. From the period of Adikavi Pampa, who proclaimed his wish to be reborn as a little bee in the land of Kannada, Kannada poetry has come a long way to Kuvempu and Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre. We can see the use of various Kannada meter (poetry) in Kannada poetry.

Kannada poetry has been traced back to around 5th century A.D, though none of those early works have been found. The earliest extant poetry in tripadi meter are the Kappe Arabhatta records of 700 C.E. The first well known Kannada poet was Adikavi Pampa who wrote in an archaic style of Kannada called Halegannada (literally "Old Kannada"). His Vikramarjuna Vijaya is hailed as a classic even to this day. With this and his other important work Adipurana he set a trend of poetic excellence for the Kannada poets of the future.

Kannada poetry called vachanas, were pithy comments on that period's social, religious and economic conditions. More importantly, they hold a mirror to the seed of a social revolution, which caused a radical re-examination of the ideas of caste, creed and religion. One of the important ideas coming out of this revolution was the view that Work is worship and a path to spirituality.

Murukan Kattakada (Malayalam: മുരുകന്‍ കാട്ടാകട) is a Malayali poet and lyricist. He was born in Kattakada, a small town near Trivandrum in Kerala. He wrote the lyrics of songs in Malayalam films like Oru Naal Varum,Parayan Marannathu, Bhagavan, Chattambinadu and Rathinirvedam.

He started his career as a teacher, teaching economics for classes Plus 1 and 2 in SMV Government Higher Secondary School, Trivandrum.

Jayant Kaikini (or Jayanta Kāykiṇi, Kannada: ಜಯಂತ ಕಾಯ್ಕಿಣಿ) (born 1955) is a poet, short stories author and movie songs scriptwriter in Kannada.

Jayant Kaikini was born in Gokarna. His father, Gourish Kaikini, a schoolteacher, was a Kannada littérateur and mother Shanta, a social worker. After a Masters in Biochemistry from Karnataka University, Dharwad, he moved to Mumbai where he worked as a chemist for many years. He now lives in Bangalore with his wife Smita and two children, Srajana (daughter) who is an Odissi dancer and architect, and Ritwik (son). Apart from Kannada Jayant is fluent in Konkani (his mother tongue), Marathi, Hindi and English.

Jayant Kaikini is regarded as one of the most significant of the younger writers in Kannada today. He is a writer of short stories, film scripts and poetry, and is based in Bangalore. His poetry is characterised by subtle imagism, a minute documentation of the seemingly commonplace, a colloquial idiom and a conscientious refusal to engage in any poeticising. He has so far published six anthologies of short stories, four books of poetry, three plays and a collection of essays.

Mano Murthy (Kannada: ಮನೊಮೂರ್ತಿ) is a leading musician and composer in the Kannada Film Industry. Although his compositions in his earlier films were also successful, he shot to fame with Mungaru Male, one of the biggest hits in Kannada industry. Before moving onto becoming a composer, he was an entrepreneur, having co-founded three companies in California. He was a programmer in microsoft. His latest venture, an IP security provider called Allegro Systems, was acquired by Cisco Systems.

Murthy had nurtured deep interest in music since a young age. He used to play drums when he was an undergrad electrical engineering student at UVCE, Bangalore University. He went to the US to do graduate work at the University of California, Davis and Stanford University.

He started his music career with composing music for the movie America! America! directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar. The songs of this movie became popular, most notable being the songs America America and Nooru Janmaku. He went on to compose music for the movie Nanna Preethiya Hudugi. The song Car Car of this movie was a big hit. He also composed the Music for National award winning Movie Preethi Prema Pranaya, and the superhit Comedy movie Joke Falls. Some of the popular songs are Gandhavathi and Naguvina Loka Idu. In spite of these hit songs, his name remained relatively unknown in Kannada filmdom. However Mungaru male which became the most successful box office hit in Kannada film industry earning Rs. 75 crores brought Mano murthy into limelight. It earned him enormous popularity and critical acclaim. Next came another super hit movie Cheluvina chittara (2007) which gave him much more fame and this movie grossed Rs.30 crores. The quality of music and melody in songs makes him the favorite choice by producers. One of the best music director in Kannada Film industry.