The original version of this article was written by Jess Bacon and published on 11 April 2024.
Dev Patel has been a prominent presence in the British film scene ever since his breakout role in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning sensation, Slumdog Millionaire. Since then, the London-born and bred actor has gone from strength to strength, co-starring alongside some of the great stars of the era, being cast by some of the most beloved indie directors, and even shaking things up by directing a film of his own.
Indeed, the actor went behind the camera to bring audiences his first feature as director and co-writer of Monkey Man, a film that received widespread acclaim for both Patel’s performance and direction. The actor’s next project, Rabbit Trap, to releases in late 2025, so what better time to look back over his finest performances? Read on to discover more about Patel’s 10 best roles, ranked here in ascending order, and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on platforms like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
10. Chappie (2015)
Chappie is an original and inventive sci-fi that never quite recovered from some harsh early reviews, but if you’re a fan of director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 and Elysium, I’d recommend giving it a shot. Just be warned, the movie plays it a bit fast and loose with cultural appropriation, so if that’s something that tends to trigger you, you might be better off watching one of the other movies on this list.
For Blomkamp’s movie, Patel played the nervy engineer responsible for looking after the eponymous protagonist, a robot he sets free only for it to learn to talk Jo-berg trash after hanging out with Die Antwoord for too long—as we said, it’s original and problematic.
9. I Lost My Body (2019)
I Lost My Body almost achieved the same success that Flow did earlier this year. Like that Latvian wonder, this gorgeous animation made it all the way from a small premiere at the Cannes Film Festival to the Oscars—it just didn’t quite manage to win.
This is an animation that fans of organic-looking work, like Persepolis or The Red Turtle, will appreciate. Patel, of course, doesn’t appear, but his voice work as the protagonist, Naoufel, in the English language version adds to the movie’s tremendous warmth and soul.
8. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are movies made to appeal to an audience of a certain age, but not exclusively, so if you enjoy shows like Downton Abbey or movies like Hope Springs, it could well be one for you.
The cast contains UK acting royalty like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton, but as the hotel manager, Sonny Kapoor, Patel kind of holds the whole thing together. The heart-warming movie was one of the highest-grossing films of 2012, making a staggering $136.8 million on its $10 million budget so at the very least, you can give it a watch to see what all the fuss was about.
7. Lion (2016)
Patel’s most celebrated role arguably came in the 2016 drama Lion, a movie that told the true story of a 25-year-old Indian man who used Google Earth to locate the family he left behind when he moved to Australia at a young age. Patel stars as Saroo Brierly alongside Nicole Kidman as his adoptive mother—it’s the kind of movie you’ll love if you like uplifting true-life dramas like Wild or Thirteen Lives.
The performance was critically acclaimed, with Patel going on to win the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Supporting Role before picking up a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards—despite it probably being better described as the lead role.
6. Monkey Man (2024)
It’s rare for actors to make the jump to directing, especially when it comes to movies like Monkey Man—an action thriller with influences ranging from Bollywood classics to John Wick. If you like the idea of seeing that kind of action mixed with the textures of another kind of cinema, we highly recommend it.
Along with directing, Patel took on the titular role, reuniting with his Chappie co-star Sharlto Copley (as always, a great antagonist) as well as the Indian actors Pitobash Tripathy, Vipin Sharma and Sikandar Kher. Nope director Jordan Peele even served as producer on the movie, which grossed four times its budget, along with scoring a formidable 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.
5. Skins (2007)
Dev Patel might not have the biggest role in Season 1 of Skins, but the show’s importance to his career can not be understated. The iconic Channel 4 series proved to be a launchpad for a whole generation of English actors, from Patel, Nicolaus Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya in Season 1 to Jack O’Connell in the next generation. For Season 1, Patel played Anwar, a pill-popping party-boy struggling to square his lifestyle with his cultural background and Muslim upbringing.
This is a show for fans of ‘00s indie sleaze debauchery—if you liked Saltburn, this is kind of the genesis of that whole vibe.
4. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
Given Patel’s easy charm and excellent comic timing, it was probably only a matter of time before Wes Anderson came along with a role for him. The movie that did it was The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, the Oscar-winning short film adaptation of the deep-cut Roald Dahl novella. Fans of Anderson’s other Dahl adaptation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, won’t want to miss this one.
The plot follows Benedict Cumberbatch’s Henry Sugar, a gambler on a journey to acquire the gift of clairvoyance that might help him to cheat. The cast is typically stacked, but Patel’s performance is a standout. It’s a pure delight.
3. The Green Knight (2021)
With all the success Patel has had, it’s strange he hasn’t been picked up to lead a huge number of projects. Perhaps his experience with The Last Airbender made him more cautious with choosing blockbusters. Whatever the reason, his appearance in David Lowery’s fascinating The Green Knight is one to cherish—especially for fans of A24 movies like The Lighthouse, or Robert Eggers’ more recent work, The Northman.
Patel plays Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, who risks losing his head by travelling to confront the titular Knight. This is rich, evocative, indie filmmaking at its best.
2. The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
If you’re a fan of Armando Iannucci’s unique brand of humour, especially Veep and The Death of Stalin, don’t sleep on The Personal History of David Copperfield—the writer-director’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic has wit and energy to burn.
Credit should also go to the filmmakers for deciding to go with colourblind casting—an approach that’s been common in theatre for ages but has taken cinema a while to catch up with. If it weren’t for that choice, Patel wouldn’t have gotten the role and fans of the actor wouldn’t have gotten this exceptional performance.
1. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Just a year after appearing on Skins, and long before his soon to be famous friends did the same, Patel made the jump to feature films with Slumdog Millionaire, a movie that rode a wave of good reviews and word of mouth to become the most successful independent British film of all time, win best picture at the Academy Awards, and earn Patel (who was still 19) a nomination for Best Actor at the BAFTAs.
Adapted from Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A, Patel stars as the 18-year-old Jamal Malik, a boy from a slum in Mumbai who wins the grand prize on India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, only to be accused of cheating. It perhaps hasn’t aged impeccably, but if you are a fan of Patel (especially in dramatic roles like Lion) or Danny Boyle’s work, it’s kind of an essential watch.
