Dev Patel

Dev Patel (born 23 April 1990) is a British actor.

Dev Patel was born on 23 April 1990 in Harrow, the son of Anita, a care worker, and Raju, an IT consultant.

His parents are Indian Gujarati Hindus, though they were both born in Nairobi, Kenya, where there is a significant Indian community; they emigrated to England separately in their teens, and first met in London.

Patel was raised in the Hindu faith.

He speaks some Gujarati.

His ancestors hail from Jamnagar and Unjha in Gujarat, India.

He grew up in the Rayners Lane district of Harrow and attended Longfield Primary School and Whitmore High School.

Patel had his first acting role as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the school's production of Twelfth Night.

At Whitmore High School, he received an A* in GCSE Drama for his "self-penned portrayal of a child in the Beslan school siege".

His drama teacher Niamh Wright has stated, "Dev was a gifted student who quickly impressed me with his innate ability to communicate a wide variety of characters imaginatively and creatively. He was awarded full marks for his GCSE performance to a live audience and the visiting examiner was moved to tears by his honest portrayal."

He started training at the Rayners Lane Academy of Taekwondo in 2000.

He competed regularly in both national and international championships, including the 2004 AIMAA (Action International Martial Arts Association) World Championships in Dublin, where he won a bronze medal.

The World Championships took place in October 2004, when he was a red belt competing in the junior division against other red and black belts.

He made it to the semi-finals, where he lost to an Irish black belt named Niall Fitzmaurice in "a very close and tough fight", and ended up winning a bronze medal.

He later gained a 1st dan black belt in March 2006.

In 2006, Patel began his acting career when he auditioned for the E4 teen drama television series Skins.

Patel's mother saw the casting advert in Metro and took him to the audition even though he had a science exam the next day.

After two auditions, he was cast in the role of Anwar Kharral, a British Pakistani Muslim teenager.

The characterisation of Anwar was partly based on Patel's personality and the role was written specifically for him after he was cast in Skins.

Patel, who had no professional acting experience, said that on "the first day of shooting I didn't really know what to do."

He began his career playing Anwar Kharral in the E4 teen drama Skins (2007).

He completed his A Levels in PE, Biology, History, and Drama in 2007 at Whitmore High School while working on Skins.

Patel said that he was "bloody energetic" as a child, and used to get in trouble because of it.

The first series of the show aired in January 2007 and went on to win the Rose d'Or for Drama in 2008 and receive a nomination for Best Drama Series at the 2008 BAFTA Television Awards.

After five auditions for the role, the actor was eventually cast in August 2007.

The film's producer found the original choice for the lead role, Ruslaan Mumtaz, too good-looking for the role.

Boyle said, "I wanted a guy who didn't look like a potential hero; I wanted him to earn that in the film."

To prepare for the role, Patel went along with Boyle while scouting for filming locations, where he was able to observe the Dharavi slums for himself.

He also worked at a call-center for a day and in a hotel, where he washed dishes.

His breakthrough came with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama Slumdog Millionaire (2008), for which Patel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Actor.

Patel reprised his role as Anwar for the second series of Skins, which aired in February 2008.

After the release of Slumdog Millionaire at the end of 2008, Patel went on to receive a number of awards for his performance, including a British Independent Film Award, National Board of Review (NBR) Award, Chicago Film Critics Association Award, and two Black Reel Awards for Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Performance.

The second series of Skins won the Philips Audience Award at the 2009 BAFTA Television Awards.

Patel made his feature film debut when he was cast in the role of Jamal Malik, the central character in Danny Boyle's film Slumdog Millionaire.

The Jamal Malik character is an Indian Muslim boy born and brought up in the poverty of Bombay, India.

Boyle considered hundreds of young male actors, but found that Bollywood leads were generally "strong, handsome hero-types", not the personality he was looking for.

Boyle's 17-year-old daughter Caitlin pointed him to Skins.

Patel's career expanded with leading roles in the comedy-dramas The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), the science fiction thriller Chappie (2015), and a supporting role in the HBO series The Newsroom (2012–2014).

For his performance as Saroo Brierley in the drama Lion (2016), Patel won the British Academy Film Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He subsequently starred in the independent films Hotel Mumbai (2018), The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019), and The Green Knight (2021).