Freida Pinto

Freida Pinto (born October 18, 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

Personal life and background

Freida Pinto was born in Mumbai to Sylvia Pinto, a principal of St. John's Universal High School (Goregaon), and Frederick Pinto, a senior branch manager at the Bank of Baroda. Freida Pinto's father is from Neerude and mother from Derebail, both towns in Mangalore. Her family is of Mangalorean Catholic origin,[ and in an interview, Pinto stated that she is "completely pure Indian", but that her family is Catholic and some of her ancestors were probably of Portuguese background, which explains the origin of her surname Pinto.

Her older sister Sharon Pinto is an associate producer on the NDTV news channel. Pinto studied at Carmel of St. Joseph School in Malad and completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in English Literature from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. She currently resides in the Orlem locality of Malad, a suburb of Mumbai. She is also trained in different forms of Indian classical dance as well as Salsa. She was once engaged to her former publicist Rohan Antao, but she called off the engagement in early 2009. She is also featured in People Magazine's "Most Beautiful People List", and "List of World's Best Dressed Women".