Freida Pinto

In 2007, Pinto became engaged to Rohan Antao, with whom she was in relationship since 2003. In January 2009, she broke off her engagement to Antao and began dating her 'Slumdog Millionaire' co-actor Dev Patel. The couple separated amicably in December 2014 after almost six years of courtship.

As of now she does not have any fixed address and divides her time between Mumbai, London and Los Angeles. However, she is seen more in Los Angeles than in other cities.

Pinto is also involved in many humanitarian works and is especially interested in elevating the conditions of women and unprivileged children. In 2012, she was appointed as the global ambassador of Plan International's ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign. Before that, in 2010, she raised $75,000 for the Agassi Foundation.

Freida Selena Pinto was born on October 18, 1984 in the Indian city of Mumbai, at that time known as Bombay, into a middleclass Mangalorean Catholic family.

Her father, Frederick Pinto, was a senior officer in the Bank of Baroda. Her mother, Sylvia Pinto, a school teacher, retired as the principal of St. John's Universal School, Mumbai. Her elder sister, Sharon ,is a producer at the Indian news channel, NDTV.

Freida was raised in Malad, a middle class neighborhood in North Mumbai. For her schooling she was sent to Carmel of St. Joseph School, located in the same neighborhood. A lively young child, she took great interest in sports and also participated in school programs as a chorus singer.

In spite of her middleclass upbringing, she developed a passion for acting early in her childhood and decided to become an actress by the age of five. As a child, she often imitated television actors and dressed like them.

In 1994, when Susmita Sen became the first Indian woman to win the Miss Universe beauty pageant, ten year old Freida was very much excited. In Sen, Freida found her role model and decided to be like her some day.

In 2005, Freida Pinto graduated with a B.A. degree from the University of Mumbai, to which St. Xavier College was affiliated. Soon after that, she began her career as a model, eventually joining Elite Model Management, and appeared in several television and print advertisements.

Early in her career, she was featured for different well-known brands such as Wrigley's Chewing Gum, Škoda, Vodafone India, Airtel, Visa, eBay, and De Beers. However, she was less successful in her acting career. Although she appeared for numerous film and television auditions she was rejected by all of them.

In 2006, she was chosen to host ‘Full Circle’, an international travel show aired on Zee International Asia Pacific, enabling her to visit many new countries like Afghanistan, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Although she continued with the show until 2008, a big change came to her life in 2007.

In 2007, the makers of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ requested her modeling agency to provide them with names of some aspiring actresses and Pinto was one among the seven actresses, whose name was put forward. After six months of grueling auditions, she was finally selected to play the part of ‘Latika’.

Although Pinto had earlier performed in amateur plays she did not have any acting lessons. Therefore, the six months of auditioning with Danny Boyle was an unforgettable learning experience for her. Later, she attended a three-month workshop at ‘The Barry John’s Acting Studio’, learning some technical aspects from it.

Freida Pinto is best known for her role in 2008 British drama film, 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Appearing as Latika, the love interest of the main character played by Dev Patel, she left her mark in spite of having a very limited scope.