Born in Mumbai, Shernaz is the daughter of Gujarati stage veterans Ruby and Burjor Patel and grew up in a theatre environment.

[1] Subsequently, she did her master's degree in acting from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

In 1992, she performed the lead in the English play, Love Letters for the first time, along with Rajit Kapoor, under the direction of Rahul da Cunha.

[5] In 2009, she acted in screenwriter and Mira Nair's long-time collaborator Sooni Taraporevala's directorial debut film, Little Zizou.

In 2015 she acted in a YouTube mini-series by YashRaj Films called "Bang Baaja Baaraat" along with Ali Fazal, Angira Dhar, Gajraj Rao, Rajit Kapur, Ayesha Raza, Neil Bhoopalam, Preetika Chawla and Priyanshu Painyuli.