Dropping out of engineering to start a career as a cinema news reporter for a local media channel in 2009, and later in 2012 serving as an anchor for U2 (Udaya Music) TV channel, Naveen Shankar is a multi-talented theatre and film actor. He has been a constant fixture on the theatre scene since 2010, under the Rajamarg Art, Culture and Drama Academy. During the three years that Naveen was with them, he acted in more than 45 stage shows, and 200 street plays for social awareness, involving eight different production banners. He has also acted in several TV serials and various short films. In 2018 Naveen made his silver screen acting debut with Janardhan Chikkanna's cybercrime thriller, Gultoo. The movie, which marks Janardhan's debut as well, also has Sonu Gowda, Avinash and Rangayana Raghu in pivotal roles.