Dev Patel began his career playing Anwar Kharral in the E4 teen drama Skins.
34 Facts About Dev Patel
2.
Dev Patel's breakthrough came with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama Slumdog Millionaire, for which Patel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Actor.
3.
Dev Patel has since starred in the independent films Hotel Mumbai, The Personal History of David Copperfield, and The Green Knight.
4.
Dev Patel was born on 23 April 1990 in Harrow, the son of Anita, a care worker, and Raju, an IT consultant.
5.
Dev Patel's 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.
6.
Dev Patel grew up in the Rayners Lane district of Harrow and attended Longfield Primary School and Whitmore High School.
7.
Dev Patel had his first acting role as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the school's production of Twelfth Night.
8.
Dev Patel was awarded full marks for his GCSE performance to a live audience and the visiting examiner was moved to tears by his honest portrayal.
9.
Dev Patel said that he was "bloody energetic" as a child, and used to get in trouble because of it.
10.
Dev Patel started training at the Rayners Lane Academy of Taekwondo in 2000.
11.
Dev Patel competed regularly in both national and international championships, including the 2004 AIMAA World Championships in Dublin, where he won a bronze medal.
12.
Dev Patel later gained a 1st dan black belt in March 2006.
13.
In 2006, Dev Patel began his acting career when he auditioned for the E4 teen drama television series Skins.
14.
Dev 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.
15.
Dev Patel reprised his role as Anwar for the second series of Skins, which aired in February 2008.
16.
Dev 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.
17.
Dev Patel worked at a call-center for a day and in a hotel, where he washed dishes.
18.
Dev Patel was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
19.
The award eventually went posthumously to Heath Ledger for his performance in The Dark Knight, though Dev Patel did win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, which he shared with ten other cast members from Slumdog Millionaire.
20.
On 8 January 2009, Dev Patel won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Young Performer.
21.
Dev Patel was nominated for two London Critics Circle Film Awards, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor, the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Leading Actor, and European Film Award for Best Actor.
22.
Dev Patel co-starred in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden, which received positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $136 million.
23.
From 2012 to 2014, Dev Patel had a supporting role in the 2012 HBO television series The Newsroom as Neal Sampat, blogger for news anchor Will McAvoy.
24.
Dev Patel appeared alongside James Franco and Heather Graham in About Cherry, which premiered at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival.
25.
In 2014, Dev Patel starred alongside Robert Sheehan and Zoe Kravitz in the film, The Road Within, about three unlikely friends with various disabilities who go on a road trip.
26.
In 2015, Dev Patel acted in Chappie as an engineer who helps design police robots and as the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in the biopic The Man Who Knew Infinity.
27.
In 2016, Dev Patel starred as Saroo Brierley in the biographical film Lion, directed by Garth Davis and co-starring Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, which premiered to rave reviews and "Oscar buzz" at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
28.
Dev Patel was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the 89th Academy Awards, winning at the former.
29.
Dev Patel is the third actor of Indian descent to receive an Oscar nomination.
30.
In 2018, Dev Patel starred in the action-thriller Hotel Mumbai and The Wedding Guest.
31.
Dev Patel returned to television in an episode of the Amazon Prime anthology Modern Love.
32.
In 2021, Dev Patel starred in The Green Knight directed by David Lowery.
33.
Dev Patel has an upcoming film role in Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
34.
Dev Patel began dating his Slumdog Millionaire co-star Freida Pinto in 2009.