After attending six primary schools in the United Kingdom and Germany, Tikaram was sent to the Duke of York's Royal Military School in the town of Dover in Kent in 1978, and won a place at the University of Kent at Canterbury, followed by the National Youth Theatre in London.
In 1992, Tikaram had a recording contract and released two singles followed by the album Chill and Kiss, the latter with Musicians including brothers Bill and Ian Nelson on guitar and sax respectively.
In October 2009, it was announced that Tikaram would appear in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. He played the part of Qadim Shah, father of the already established character Amira Shah. He appeared on-screen in the role from 17 December 2009 to 29 April 2010 in two separate stints, he returned on 6 September 2011 but left again and returned on 6 January and left again. Tikaram also provided voice acting for the character of Gabe Weller in the 2009 video game Dead Space: Extraction.
Tikaram performed the role of the King of Siam in a UK tour of the musical The King and I, ending in May 2012. In November 2012, he also provided the voice of World Eaters Captain Macer Varren for the Black Library audio drama, "Garro: Sword of Truth", part of the long-running Horus Heresy series.
He appeared as Prendahl in Game of Thrones in 2013. In video games, he lent his voice for Dorian in Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Gein in the cancelled Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun.
Ravindra 'Rav' Chaudhry, a character from 2017 video game Need for Speed Payback, is voiced by him.
