Dev Patel
(born April 23, 1990, London, England) is a
multifaceted
English actor of Indian descent who rose to international fame after starring in
Slumdog Millionaire
(2008) and has continued to enjoy an award-winning film career.
Early life and break into acting
Patel was born and raised in
Harrow
, an outer borough of
London
. His parents, of
Gujarati
descent, immigrated to
England
from
Kenya
. His mother, Anita, was a care worker, and his father, Raj, worked in information technology. Growing up, Dev practiced
tae kwon do
and other martial arts and competed in championship events. His earliest foray into acting was at age 11 when he played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a school production of
Shakespeare
’s
Twelfth Night
, for which he was given a best actor award. While in
high school
, Patel earned top marks in his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) drama exam and brought the examiner to tears for his portrayal of a child in the
Beslan school attack
.
Patel’s professional acting career began with the British teen drama
Skins
(2007?13), playing British Pakistani teen Anwar Kharral for two seasons (2007?08). In this role he was noticed by the daughter of director
Danny Boyle
, who then cast him to star as Jamal Malik in the Academy Award-winning
Slumdog Millionaire
(2008). In the film Patel played an
orphan
from an impoverished section of
Mumbai
whose story of a rise from adversity is intertwined with his involvement in the Mumbai underworld as told through a series of flashbacks from his competition on an Indian
quiz show
. For his first film performance, Patel was nominated for BAFTA, MTV, Teen Choice, and NAACP Image awards and won a Screen Actors Guild Award (shared with the film’s cast) and a solo Critics Choice Award for best young actor.
Continued film success
Patel’s next major film saw him return to
India
, in
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
(2011), acting as scrappy and daydreaming Indian hotelier Sonny Kapoor alongside British retirees played by storied actors
Judi Dench
,
Maggie Smith
, and Bill Nighy. He
reprised
this role in
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
(2015). He also played Indian mathematical prodigy
Srinivasa Ramanujan
in
The Man Who Knew Infinity
(2015).
Patel returned to his award-winning ways with
Lion
(2016). The film recounts the true story of Saroo Brierley, who as a young boy in India fell asleep on a train, wound up alone in Calcutta (
Kolkata
), and, after being placed in an orphanage, was adopted by an Australian family. As an adult, Brierley (played by Patel) seeks out his family in India. For this role Patel won a BAFTA Award and earned nominations for Critics Choice, Golden Globe, and
Oscar
awards. He followed up with
Hotel Mumbai
(2018), about the
Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008
. He returned to a setting in his native England to play non-Indian characters such as
Charles Dickens
’s
David Copperfield
in
The Personal History of David Copperfield
(2019) and
Gawain
in
The Green Knight
(2021), a film based on
Arthurian legend
. These roles helped Patel make a professional shift away from being typecast based on his ethnic heritage.
In 2024 Patel starred in
Monkey Man
, which he also directed and cowrote. The action film featured his experience with tae kwon do and other martial arts. His anonymous character works in a fight club and seeks
vengeance
against the corrupt elite who murdered his mother and control a fictional Indian city. His directorial debut was produced by
Jordan Peele
and offers social commentary on caste and inequality issues in India. Patel’s simian-mask-wearing character was inspired by the nobility, courage, and perseverance of the Hindu monkey god
Hanuman
. The film received a standing ovation when it premiered at
South by Southwest
(SXSW).
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Charles Preston