[3][4] Sreekumar made his debut in the Malayalam movie Coolie (1983) Directed by Ashok Kumar.

The Malayalam movie Chithram (1988) directed by Priyadarshan, starring Mohanlal, was the first where Sreekumar sang all the songs.

[citation needed] He worked as music director in Malayalam films such as Chathurangam (2002) and Thandavam (2002), Priyadarshan's Kanchivaram (2008), Mohanlal's Alexander the Great and Oru Naal Varum.

[7] Sreekumar was born on 25 May 1957, at Haripad, in Alappuzha district, Kerala as the younger son of music composer and harmonist Malabar Gopalan Nair and Harikatha exponent Kamalakshi Amma.

Sreekumar and Lekha, his future wife, first saw each other in 1988 at Thycaud Dharma Sastha Temple, Thiruvananthapuram, but they met each other only few days later after a concert.