Freida Pinto

It was the most successful film at the 81st Academy Awards: it was nominated for ten awards, of which it won eight, including the award for Best Picture.

Pinto won the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, along with other cast members from the film.

She was also nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the BAFTA Awards.

Pinto's performance in the film drew little attention from critics as her screen presence in the film was limited.

The Telegraph (Calcutta) opined "it's difficult to form an opinion" on her character; its columnist Bharathi S. Pradhan noted "Slumdog Millionaire wasn't really a test of Freida's acting abilities."

Following the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Pinto signed up for two art house productions.

Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films.

Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she resolved at a young age to become an actress.

As a student at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, she took part in amateur plays.

After graduation, she briefly worked as a model and then as a television presenter.

Pinto was born on 18 October 1984 in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra to Mangalorean Catholic parents from Mangalore, Karnataka.

Her mother, Sylvia Pinto, was the principal of St. John's Universal School in Goregaon, West Mumbai, and her father, Frederick Pinto, was a senior branch manager for the Bank of Baroda in Bandra, West Mumbai.

Her elder sister, Sharon, works for NDTV.

Pinto had a middle class upbringing in the suburb of Malad, North Mumbai.

She first wanted to be an actress when she was five years old, often dressing up and imitating television actors during her childhood.

She later recalled being inspired by Sushmita Sen's victory in the 1994 Miss Universe competition, explaining that "the country was really proud of her, and I was like, one day, I want to do the same".

Pinto attended the Carmel of St. Joseph School in Malad, North Mumbai and then studied at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai in Fort, South Mumbai.

Her major was in English literature, with minors in psychology and economics.

Despite her interest in acting from an early age, Pinto was undecided on what career to take until watching Monster (2003) while at college.

She stated: "I guess it was when I watched Monster... I pretty much knew. I had to find a way. I had to do something like that, something completely transformational."

At college, she participated in amateur theatre, but declined acting and modeling assignments until her graduation in 2005.

In 2005, Pinto began a modeling career and joined Elite Model Management India, with whom she worked for two and a half years.

She was featured in several television and print advertisements for products such as Wrigley's Chewing Gum, Škoda, Vodafone India, Airtel, Visa, eBay, and De Beers.

Around the same time, Pinto began going to auditions for films and television shows.

She was chosen to host Full Circle, an international travel show that aired on Zee International Asia Pacific between 2006 and 2008.

The show took her to countries all over the world, including Afghanistan, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

Her auditions for both Bollywood and Hollywood productions, including Shimit Amin's Indian Hindi-language sports film Chak De! India (2007), and for the role of Bond girl Camille Montes in Marc Forster's Quantum of Solace (2008), were largely unsuccessful.

Pinto later claimed that it was a good learning experience, stating that she was "glad things happened the way they happened. I needed to be rejected, and I needed to learn that it's part of the game... I can have 100 rejections, but I'm sure there's going to be one particular thing that is almost destined for me to have."

In 2007, Pinto's modeling agency selected her and six other models to audition for the female lead in Danny Boyle's film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) after a request by its casting director.

After undergoing six months of extensive auditions, Pinto won the role of Latika, the love interest of the main character Jamal, played by Dev Patel.

During the post-production phase, she attended an acting course at the Barry John Acting Studio in Mumbai.

Although the course taught her about the "technical aspects" of acting, she stated that "in terms of the actual experience, there's nothing like going out there and actually playing the part... So for me, my favorite acting school was the six months of auditioning with Danny Boyle".

Acclaimed particularly for its plot and soundtrack, Slumdog Millionaire emerged as a sleeper hit; made on a budget of $15 million, the film grossed US$377.9 million worldwide.

Pinto rose to prominence with her film debut in the drama Slumdog Millionaire (2008) for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

She earned critical acclaim for her roles in Miral (2010), Trishna (2011), and Desert Dancer (2014).

Pinto's other notable roles include You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), Love Sonia (2018), Hillbilly Elegy (2020), and Mr. Malcolm's List (2022).

She also saw commercial success with the science fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and the epic fantasy action film Immortals (2011).

She also starred in the Showtime miniseries Guerrilla (2017), and had a recurring role in the Hulu series The Path (2018).

Although the Indian press has credited Pinto with breaking the stereotypical image of an Indian woman in foreign films, she has been a lesser-known figure in Indian cinema and has rarely been featured in prominent productions in India.

Along with her film career, she promotes humanitarian causes and is vocal about women's empowerment.