Dev Patel

Dev Patel (born 23 April 1990) is an English actor and director. He is known for his roles as Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire and Saroo Brierley in Lion; He won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for Lion and was nominated for an Oscar.

He was born in the Harrow district of London, to an Indian family of Gujarati origin who was born in Kenya. He appeared on the screen in 2007-2008, playing Anwar Kharral in the youth TV series Skins, for which he auditioned without any professional acting experience.

Cinema career

Slumdog Millionaire (2008), directed by Danny Boyle, introduced him internationally. He was nominated for a leading role at the BAFTAs for his role as Jamal Malik, was named best young actor at the Critics' Choice awards, and shared the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award with the film's cast. He then starred in productions such as The Last Airbender (2010), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) and its sequel (2015), Chappie (2015).

He played Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in The Man Who Knew Infinity. On television, he appeared in the TV series The Newsroom (2012-2014) and Modern Love (2019).

The turning point of his career was Lion (2016), in which he played Saroo Brierley, who grows up in Australia and searches for his family in India after many years; This role brought him a BAFTA award, as well as Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG nominations. He rose to prominence as a leading actor with Hotel Mumbai (2018), The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) and The Green Knight (2021); He was nominated for a second Golden Globe for David Copperfield.

He also took part in the English dubbing of the animation I Lost My Body (2019). He made his directorial debut in 2024 with the action movie Monkey Man, which he wrote, directed and starred in; The film received a BAFTA nomination for first film.

Patel, who started his journey with the youth TV series and continued with acting and directing, is among the internationally known names of British cinema.