Dev Patel Biography

Dev Patel is an English actor and filmmaker who has won various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2024, Time Magazine mentioned him in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Dev Patel Age

Patel was born on April 23, 1990, in Harrow, London, England. He is 35 years old as of 2025. Patel celebrates his birthday on April 23rd.

Dev Patel Height

Patel stands at an approximate height of 6 feet and 2 inches.

Dev Patel Family

Patel was born to Indian parents, Anita Patel and Raju Patel. Anita works as a care worker while Raju works as an IT consultant. His parents are Gujaratis who were born in Nairobi, Kenya. They migrated to the United Kingdom separately in their teens, and first met in London. They raised him in the Rayners Lane district of Harrow in the Hindu faith. Patel has ancestors from Jamnagar and Unjha in Gujarat and can speak some Gujarati. He has a sister who is four years older than him.

Dev Patel Wife

Patel is in a relationship with Tilda Cobham-Hervey. They posed for photographs together for the first time on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of his debut feature as a director, Monkey Man, on April 2, 2024. Their relationship became public in March 2017.

Patel and Tilda met nine months earlier on the set of Hotel Mumbai. In April 2022, they moved to Tilda’s hometown, Adelaide. An August 2022 report featured him after he broke up a fight in Gouger Street in Adelaide City Centre. Tilda is an Australian actress who has starred in 52 Tuesdays, Hotel Mumbai, I Am Woman, and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. She was born on September 4, 1994, and is 30 years old as of 2024.

Before Tilda, Patel was in a relationship with Slumdog Millionaire co-star, Freida Pinto. They started dating in 2009 and separated in December 2014 after dating for nearly six years. Freida is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. She has appeared in films like Slumdog Millionaire, Miral, Trishna, and Desert Dancer. She was born on October 18, 1984, and is 40 years old as of 2024.

Dev Patel Net Worth

Patel has an estimated net worth ranging between $20million – $25 million, which he has earned through being an actor and filmmaker.

Dev Patel Skins

Patel launched his professional acting career in 2006 when he auditioned for E4’s Skins. His mother took him to the audition after she saw the casting advertisement in Metro, despite him having a science exam the next day. He was cast as Anwar Kharral, a British Pakistani Muslim teenager, after auditioning two times. Anwar was partly based on Patel’s personality, as the role was made specifically for him when he joined the series’ cast.

Anwar is a British Pakistani Muslim teenager who’s traversing the intricacies of adolescence, cultural expectations, and personal identity. Raised in a traditional Muslim household, he claims to pray five times a day but often engages in behaviors that contradict his religious teachings, including having premarital sex, consuming alcohol, and taking drugs.

Dev Patel Slumdog Millionaire

Patel made his feature film in 2008 when he joined the cast of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire as Jamal Malik, an Indian-Muslim boy born and brought up in the poverty of Bombay, India. Malik competes on Kaun Banega Crorepati(a Hindi Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), standing to win the grand prize of ₹2 crore ($USD420,000). He surprises everyone by correctly answering every question so far, winning ₹1 crore ($USD210,000). When he is just one question away from winning the grand prize, he is accused of cheating and recounts his life story to the police, sharing how he was able to answer every question.

Patel joined the cast in 2007, after auditioning for the role 5 times. In preparation for the role, he and Boyle scouted filming locations, which allowed him to observe the Dharavi slums for himself. He also served at a call center for a day and in a hotel, where he washed dishes.

Patel’s performance in the film won him several awards, including a British Independent Film Award, Chicago Film Critics Association Award,  National Board of Review (NBR) Award, and two Black Reel Awards for Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Performance. He also won two nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2009 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. Further, he won the Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Award, shared with ten other cast members from Slumdog Millionaire.

On 8 January 2009, Patel won the Critics’ Choice Best Young Performer Award. Further, he won nominations for two London Critics Circle Film Awards, the NAACP Image Outstanding Supporting Actor Award, the European Film Best Actor Award, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Leading Actor.

Dev Patel Zuko

Patel played the role of Zuko in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. His performance in the film won him a nomination for a Razzie Worst Supporting Actor Award. Zuko is the former heir to the throne of the Fire Nation, traveling with his Uncle Iroh. His father, Fire Lord Ozai, exiles him and orders him to capture the Avatar to regain his lost honor.

Dev Patel Lion

In 2016, he starred as Saroo Brierley in Lion opposite Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. Lion follows the true story of how Saroo was separated from his family in India and went to find them. When he was 5, he accidentally boarded a train that took him over 1,600 kilometers away from his hometown in India. Since he is too young and can’t speak the regional language (Bengali instead of Hindi), he is taken to a Calcutta orphanage, where an Australian couple adopt him. He was raised in Tasmania and decided to look for his birth family as a grown-up. His role in the film won him a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Award at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the 89th Academy Awards, winning at the former.

Dev Patel Monkey Man

In 2024, Patel debuted as a director with the film Monkey Man. Besides directing, he stars in the film and is also credited as a co-writer and producer. In the film, he plays the role of Kid, a man who seeks vengeance on the corrupt leaders accountable for his mother’s death.

Dev Patel Education

Patel studied at Longfield Primary School and Whitmore High School. He had his first acting experience in high school, where he played the role of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the school’s production of Twelfth Night. While at Whitmore High, he obtained an A* in GCSE Drama for his self-penned portrayal of a child in the Beslan school siege. He received full marks for his GCSE performance to a live audience, and the visiting examiner was moved to tears by his honest portrayal. In 2007, he finished his A Levels in PE, Biology, History, and Drama while he was starring in Skins.

Patel began training at the Rayners Lane Academy of Taekwondo in 2000. He often competed in national and international championships, including the October 2004 AIMAA (Action International Martial Arts Association) World Championships in Dublin. In the competition, he competed as a red belt in the junior division against other red and black belts, making it to the semi-finals where he lost to an Irish black belt, named Niall Fitzmaurice. He won a bronze medal and later received a 1st dan black belt in 2006.

Dev Patel Career

Patel launched his professional acting career in 2006 when he auditioned for E4’s Skins. His mother took him to the audition after she saw the casting advertisement in Metro, despite him having a science exam the next day. He was cast as  Anwar Kharral, a British Pakistani Muslim teenager, after auditioning two times. He reprised his role as Anwar for the second series of Skins, which aired in February 2008.

Patel made his feature film in 2008 when he joined the cast of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire as Jamal Malik, an Indian-Muslim boy born and brought up in the poverty of Bombay, India. He eventually joined the cast in 2007, after auditioning for the role 5 times. His performance in the film won him several awards, including a British Independent Film Award, Chicago Film Critics Association Award,  National Board of Review (NBR) Award, and two Black Reel Awards for Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Performance.

2012 to 2019

Patel played the role of Zuko in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. He later played the role in The Commuter. He co-starred in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2012 and in its sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, in 2015. In preparation for the role, he took lessons in perfecting an Indian-English accent. He played a supporting role in HBO’s The Newsroom as Neal Sampat from 2012 to 2014. He starred in About Cherry opposite James Franco and Heather Graham.

In 2014, Patel starred in The Road Within with Robert Sheehan and Zoë Kravitz. The following year, he portrayed an engineer who helps design police robots in Chappie. He also starred as Srinivasa Ramanujan in The Man Who Knew Infinity. In 2016, he starred as Saroo Brierley in Lion opposite Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. His role in the film won him a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Award at the 70th British Academy Film Awards and the 89th Academy Awards, winning at the former. He serves as the third actor of Indian descent to win an Oscar nomination.

Patel appeared in Hotel Mumbai and The Wedding Guest in 2018. The following year, he played the titular character in The Personal History of David Copperfield. His performance in the film won him a nomination for the 2021 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He returned to TV with a role in an episode of Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, winning him an Emmy nomination.

2020 to present;

Patel appeared in The Green Knight in 2021. In April of that year, he signed a deal to produce, develop, and create projects with ShivHans Pictures. Towards the end of 2021, he started his own production company, Minor Realm. He starred in Wes Anderson‘s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar in 2023 opposite Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley.

In 2024, Patel debuted as a director with the film Monkey Man. Besides directing, he stars in the film and is also credited as a co-writer and producer. He is scheduled to star in and work as the executive producer of Miramax’s The Key Man and join Olivia Colman in Wicker.

Dev Patel Movies and TV Shows

Patel has starred in several movies and TV shows during his career such as

• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
• The Road Within
• The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
• The Man Who Knew Infinity
• Only Yesterday
• Hotel Mumbai
• The Wedding Guest
• Mister Eleven
• I Lost My Body
• The Newsroom
• Roborovski
• India From Above
• Poison
• Rabbit Trap