Skins star wins US award for Slumdog Millionaire

Former Skins star Dev Patel, who has won a US Critics' Choice gong for his role in Slumdog Millionaire, says his mum still nags him to make his bed.

Dev, 18, plays Jamal Malik, a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, in the new movie that's tipped for Oscars success. He won the best young actor/actress category at the glamorous awards in Santa Monica, California.

"My mum is still nagging me to make my bed," Patel told the Evening Standard. "My sister and I annoy each other. That's what keeps me grounded.

"It's just when I go to work I'm treated as an adult."

Dev grew up in Harrow, where his mother, Anita, is a care worker and his father, Raj, is an IT consultant.

He said his mother saw an advert for the E4 drama Skins in a local paper, but told him to revise for a science exam on the Tube while he went to a casting.

Fortunately for Dev, he won the role of Anwar in Skins. He said: "He wasn't just a good kid at home eating chapattis. Even now British Asians come up to me and say: 'You're a legend for doing that'."

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