Biography
Date of Birth
23 December 1990, Harrow, London, England, UK
Height
6' 1½" (1.87 m)
Mini Biography
Dev Patel was born in Harrow, London, to Anita, a caregiver, and Raj Patel, who works in IT. His parents, originally from Nairobi, Kenya, are both of Gujarati Indian descent. His first role was in the UK TV series Skins (2007). His breakout role was in the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). In May 2012, he played Sonny Kapoor in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011). In March 2015, he had a leading role in two major motion pictures released in the theaters at the same time: Chappie (2015) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015).
Trivia
Received an A* for GCSE drama, after moving his examiner to tears with a performance of a child in the Beslan school siege.
Studied at Longfield Middle School & Whitmore High School in Harrow.
Was formerly in a relationship with Freida Pinto (from February 2009 to December 2014). The two met on the set of Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
Wanted to audition for Life of Pi (2012), but was turned down by the producers. They felt he was overexposed.
For his part in Lion (2016), he had to develop a new physique and attended several hours in the gym in order inhabit his part. He also grew a beard and developed an Australian accent. In total, he spent eight months preparing for the role.
His parents' first date was a trip to McDonald's, where his father, Raj, bought his mother, Anita, a Happy Meal.
Dev and Lucas Hedges are the first males born in the 1990s to have received an Academy Award nomination for acting (both were nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2016 films, Patel for Lion (2016) and Hedges for Manchester by the Sea (2016)). Keisha Castle-Hughes is the first female born in the decade to have been nominated for an acting Oscar (for Whale Rider (2002), receiving a Best Actress nomination for 2003's movie year). Timothée Chalamet is the first person born in the decade to be nominated for Best Actor, for Call Me by Your Name (2017).
He's skilled in martial arts and has a black belt in tae kwan do.
Dev has a sister who is four years older than him.
Quotes
I'm not a Casanova in 'The Newsroom,' by the way - just another hard worker.
I visit India a lot.
I have a Blackberry which I use, but I am one of those people who can only type on it with one hand.
I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account.
But I'm tone deaf - window-shattering tone deaf. I can't sing for the life of me. I can't sing or dance, so no remake of 'Grease' for me!
Television moves fast, and you don't have the indulgences you have when you're shooting movies of so many takes because there are tight deadlines.
I don't think I have the pulling power of Jim Carrey.
The thing is, I am a loving person. I am super sappy when it comes to romance. But I'm not the Antonio Banderas, swashbuckling, Pierce Brosnan, smooth-talking type.
'Slumdog' was my first movie, and I had never been to India before - I was just a teenager in the U.K. with my headphones and my Nike shoes. What did I know about growing up in a slum?
Training in taekwondo for eight years and then being able to do it in a film was pretty amazing.
Yeah, my family is of Indian heritage.
The dark side is when you are with family and friends, and you have paparazzi screaming at you - that's been hard to deal with.
