Dev Patel Biography

Dev Patel is an English actor best known for his starring role as the good-guy underdog Jamal in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire.

He was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 for his performance in the 2016 film Lion.

Dev Patel’s path to international stardom was swift and unexpected: with no prior acting experience, he landed a role in the U.K. television series Skins when he was 16 years old. While on the show in 2007 and 2008, Patel was chosen to star in Danny Boyle‘s rags-to-riches Mumbai drama, Slumdog Millionaire (opposite Freida Pinto). The film was a hit and Patel earned rave reviews for his performance.

Patel went on to play the villain in the M. Night Shyamalan film The Last Airbender (2010) and an ambitious (if naive) innkeeper in the old-folks comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011, with Judi Dench) and its sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015, with Maggie Smith).

Since then Patel’s films have included The Wedding Guest (2018), The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) and The Green Knight (2012). He also did the voice in the English version of the Oscar-nominated animated feature I Lost My Body (2019).