A new set of palladium(II) complexes comprising phenyl(thiazolyl)thiourea ligands have been successfully synthesized and characterized with the aid of analytical as well as spectral (IR, UV-visible and NMR) methods. A distorted square-planar geometry with N^S coordination mode of thiourea ligands in the new palladium complexes was corroborated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. Interestingly, the palladium(II) thiourea complexes showed the highest catalytic activity with 0.1 mol% catalyst loading in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions utilizing a range of aryl bromides/unactivated aryl chlorides with arylboronic acids as coupling partners in aqueous-organic media. Syntheses of diaryl ketones using aryl esters and arylboronic acids as coupling partners were also achieved with low catalyst loading within 20 h. The potential of our catalyst was demonstrated by its wide substrate scope, low catalyst loadings and high isolated yield. Moreover, the influences of key parameters like solvent, base, temperature and catalyst loading were also investigated.