A business management graduate with an MBA in finance, Yagna Shetty took to acting in 2007, making her debut in the Kannada movie Ondu Preethiya Kathe. Despite being not very fluent in Kannada, she managed to wow the audience with her performance, with critics calling her a promising debutante. In 2009, she appeared in two movies - Eddelu Manjunatha and Love Guru, both of which won her critical acclaim. Her performance in Eddelu Manjunatha won her a Filmfare Special Award - South while she went on to win a Filmfare Award -Kannada for Best Supporting Actress for Love Guru.

Yagna then went on to feature in movies like Sugreeva, Kalla Malla Sulla, and Ulidavaru Kandanthe. Making her television debut, Yagna became a part of the socio-drama Vaarasdaara, which deals with the social issue of female infanticide, in 2016. The same year, she was seen in Killing Veerappan, playing Veerappan's wife, Muthulakshmi, and also played the titular role in Ramabai, which is the story of the social reformer B. R. Ambedkar's first wife. The following year, in 2017, she was cast alongside G Kishore Kumar and Tarun Shatriya in the period action drama Kalathur Gramam. Her 2018 release includes Operation 2019.