Freida Pinto

Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. Born and raised in Bombay, 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 rose to prominence with her film debut in the drama Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which is a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Drama, and won the Palm Springs International Film Festival Award for Breakthrough Performance for Slumdog Millionaire. Her biggest commercial success came with the science fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). Her performance as the title character in Michael Winterbottom's Trishna (2011) garnered her widespread recognition and praise.

Pinto portrayed Cretan princess Phaedra in the epic fantasy action film Immortals (2011), narrated the documentary Girl Rising (2013), and starred in the biographical drama Desert Dancer (2014), for which she received critical acclaim. The film Miral features a teenage Pinto as a Palestinian girl raised partly in an orphanage and on weekends by her father after her mother drowns herself. In 2017, she starred in the Showtime miniseries Guerrilla, and in 2018 she had starring roles in the Indian drama Love Sonia, the fantasy adventure film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, and in 2020, the drama Hillbilly Elegy.

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.