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Freida Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress and professional model, best known for her performance as Latika in her debut film Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2009. Pinto won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Early life

Pinto was born on 18 October 1984 in Mumbai to a Mangalorean Catholic family. Her mother Sylvia Pinto, is a principal of St. John’s Universal High School (Goregaon), and father Frederick Pinto is a senior branch manager at the Bank of Baroda. Pinto’s parents are from Mangalore. Her older sister Sharon Pinto is an associate producer on the NDTV news channel. Pinto dreamed of becoming an actress, since she was five years old. At the age of ten, she was influenced by Indian actress and model Sushmita Sen winning Miss Universe 1994, which turned out to be a defining point in her life. Pinto studied at Carmel of St. Joseph School in Malad and completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a major in English literature, and minors in Psychology and Economics, from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She also acted in plays and amateur theater while attending St. Xavier’s. She later joined Elite Model Management and modeled for two and a half years.

Career

Before starring in Slumdog Millionaire, Pinto anchored the international travel show, Full Circle, on Zee International Asia Pacific in English between 2006-08. Pinto was also featured in several television and print advertisements for products such as Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, Škoda, Vodafone India, Airtel, and DeBeers. Pinto modeled for four years and appeared in runway shows and magazine covers. She learned acting from The Barry John’s Acting Studio in Andheri and was trained by theatre director Barry John. After six months of auditions, she received a call to audition for Slumdog Millionaire. Pinto auditioned for Danny Boyle and was short-listed and finally selected to star in Slumdog Millionaire.

Pinto made her feature film debut in 2008. Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on a game show and exceeds people’s expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials. In the film, Pinto played the role of Latika, the girl with whom Jamal (Dev Patel) is in love. At the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award. At the 2009 Golden Globe Awards, the movie won four awards. Pinto herself was nominated for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” at the 2009 BAFTA Awards, and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture alongside other cast members from Slumdog Millionaire.

She has completed work on Miral, a Franco-Israeli film directed by Julian Schnabel. Pinto has been cast in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, which co-stars Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Anupam Kher and Naomi Watts. On 13 May 2009 it was announced that Pinto was to become the new ‘face’ of L’Oréal despite rumours that she was due to sign a “six figure deal” with rival cosmetics firm Estee Lauder.

In the media

Pinto is featured in People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People List”, and “List of World’s Best Dressed Women”. She was also featured in the list of most desirable women on Askmen.com. According to The Daily Telegraph, she is currently the highest paid actress in India. She has also been listed in the top ten list of the fashion magazine Vogue’s 2009 annual list of the most stylish women.

Personal life

Pinto was engaged to her former publicist and boyfriend of eight years, Rohan Antao, but she called off the engagement in early 2009, citing career reasons. She is currently dating her “Slumdog Millionaire” co-star, Dev Patel. She is also trained in different forms of Indian classical dance as well as Salsa. She currently resides in the Orlem locality of Malad, a suburb of Mumbai.

Filmography

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