"and the rest is history"

In 2007, director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") went to Mumbai to find an actor to play the central character in his next film, "Slumdog Millionaire," a Dickensian story of a boy who emerges from the slums of India and captures the attention of the nation.

What Boyle found, though, was a Bollywood film industry dominated by extremely muscular actors, a trend he had not expected. According to the director, many of the actors with whom he met were immensely talented, but he felt he couldn't use any of them for the eponymous role of Jamal because "this guy's an ordinary Joe, he's an everyman, he's a man like any of us -- he's for all of us, really."

As a result, Boyle -- the man who had previously discovered numerous fine actors like Ewan McGregor, Kelly Macdonald and Cillian Murphy -- returned to London without a star and without a plan. That's when fate stepped in. Boyle's 17-year-old daughter, aware of his problem, suggested that he check out the actor who played a minor comedic character on the British television series "Skins," who appeared to be Indian. Boyle was intrigued, made some inquiries, and learned that he was a 17-year-old English-born actor of Indian descent named Dev Patel. Patel was contacted, called in for several auditions, and cast in the part. The rest, as they say, is history.