2006–2007: Early work In 2006, Patel's professional acting career began when he auditioned for the
E4 teen drama television series
Skins. His mother saw the casting advertisement in
Metro and took him to the audition, even though he had a science exam the next day. After two auditions, he was cast in the role of
Anwar Kharral, a
British Pakistani Muslim teenager. With no prior professional acting experience, Patel recalled that, on "the first day of shooting, I didn't really know what to do." Patel reprised his role as Anwar for the second series of
Skins, which aired in February 2008. The second series of
Skins won the Philips Audience Award at the
2009 BAFTA Television Awards.
2008–2010: Breakthrough and critical acclaim 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. The Jamal Malik character is an Indian Muslim boy born and brought up in the
poverty of
Bombay, India. Boyle considered hundreds of young male actors, but found that
Bollywood leads were generally "strong, handsome hero-types", not the personality he was looking for. Boyle's 17-year-old daughter Caitlin pointed him to
Skins. After five auditions for the role, Patel was eventually cast in August 2007. The film's producer found the original choice for the lead role,
Ruslaan Mumtaz, too good-looking for the role. Boyle said, "I wanted a guy who didn't look like a potential hero; I wanted him to earn that in the film." After the release of
Slumdog Millionaire at the end of 2008, Patel went on to receive a number of awards for his performance, including a
British Independent Film Award,
National Board of Review (NBR) Award,
Chicago Film Critics Association Award, and two
Black Reel Awards for Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Performance. Patel was also nominated for
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the
2009 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. The award eventually went posthumously to
Heath Ledger for his performance in
The Dark Knight, though 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. On 8 January 2009, Patel won the
Critics' Choice Award for
Best Young Performer. He was also 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. The
film itself won four
Golden Globes, Patel played
Zuko in
M. Night Shyamalan's
The Last Airbender, a feature film adaptation of the animated series
Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was released on 1 July 2010 to extremely negative reviews. Despite being a commercial success, the film was a critical failure and Patel even received a
Razzie Award nomination as
Worst Supporting Actor that year, although his role was well received, and was considered by many to be one of the film's positive aspects. Patel later starred in the short film
The Commuter, which was directed by
McHenry Brothers to promote the
Nokia N8 smartphone in the UK Fans who won a Nokia UK run competition starred alongside Dev Patel in the short film.
2011–2020: Established actor Patel co-starred in
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), (and subsequently in its 2015 sequel,
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) directed by
John Madden, which received positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $136 million. For the role, he had to take lessons in perfecting an Indian-English accent. From 2012 to 2014, Patel had a supporting role in the 2012
HBO television series
The Newsroom as Neal Sampat, blogger for news anchor Will McAvoy. He also appeared alongside
James Franco and
Heather Graham in
About Cherry, which premiered at the
2012 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2014, Patel starred alongside
Robert Sheehan and
Zoë Kravitz in the film,
The Road Within, about three unlikely friends with various disabilities who go on a road trip. The film received generally mixed reviews.
Variety had positive words for the "bristling and committed performances by Robert Sheehan, Dev Patel and Zoe Kravitz" while noting that "there remains a nagging tidiness to the whole endeavour that leaves a strained, cloying aftertaste" that kept the movie from truly succeeding. In 2015, 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. In 2016, 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. The film is based on Brierley's memoir
A Long Way Home. 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. He is the third actor of Indian descent to receive an Oscar nomination. In 2018, Patel starred in the action-thriller
Hotel Mumbai and
The Wedding Guest. In 2019, Patel starred as the titular character in
Armando Iannucci's adaptation of
Charles Dickens'
The Personal History of David Copperfield, for which he received a nomination for the 2021 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He also returned to television in an episode of the
Amazon Prime anthology
Modern Love, for which he received an
Emmy nomination.
2020–present: Expansion into directing In 2021, Patel starred in
The Green Knight, based on
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, directed by
David Lowery. In April of that year, he signed a deal to "produce, develop and create projects" with ShivHans Pictures. Towards the end of 2021, Patel established his own production company, Minor Realm. In 2023, Patel appeared in
Wes Anderson's
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, an adaptation of a
short story by
Roald Dahl, starring opposite
Benedict Cumberbatch,
Ralph Fiennes, and
Ben Kingsley. (SXSW) 2024 Patel made his directorial debut with the 2024 action thriller film
Monkey Man, as announced in 2018. In addition to directing, Patel stars in the film, and is credited as a co-writer and producer. The film was initially set to be distributed by
Netflix, but
Jordan Peele, having seen the film, felt that it deserved a theatrical release instead, so he acquired it from Netflix under his
Monkeypaw Productions banner.
Monkey Man had its world premiere at
South by Southwest on 11 March 2024. and was released in Australian cinemas on 4 April 2024. It was released by
Universal Pictures in the US on 5 April 2024. Patel will executive produce and star in the
Miramax miniseries
The Key Man as disgraced businessman
Arif Naqvi, and was initially set to join
Olivia Colman in
Wicker before dropping out. == Personal life ==