Norwin Tharayil studied German philology, history and literary writing in Basel and Hildesheim. They write poetry and prose and are also a performer. Their literary audio piece Im Halbschlaf träumte ich vom Ende der Nacht, a collaboration with their brother Ralph Tharayil, explores the meaning of sleep in face of 21st century conditions, and was aired on SRF2 Kultur. The audio piece Are You Feeling Better Now? – A guided meditation, developed with sound artist Jascha Dormann, which critically questions the prevalence of meditation apps in Western performance-based societies, was shown at the Prosanova Literaturfestival 2020.

In co-production with Kaserne Basel, they created the dance performance Keshava/Tharayil together with Ralph Tharayil and the dancers Anjali and Sumitra Keshava, which premiered in June 2021. They also publish music under the moniker elfrid the third; their debut album A Case of Paranoia is set to be released later this year. Norwin lives in Berlin.