Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films.
Pinto was born on 18 October 1984 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Western India to Mangalorean Catholic parents from Mangalore, Karnataka, South India. Her mother, Sylvia Pinto, was the principal of St. John’s Universal School in Goregaon, West Mumbai, and her father, Frederick Pinto, was a senior branch manager for the Bank of Baroda in Bandra, West Mumbai. Her elder sister, Sharon, works for NDTV.
Pinto had a middle-class upbringing in the suburb of Malad, North Mumbai. She first wanted to be an actress when she was five years old, often dressing up and imitating television actors during her childhood. She later recalled being inspired by Sushmita Sen’s victory in the 1994 Miss Universe competition, explaining that “the country was really proud of her, and I was like, one day, I want to do the same”. Pinto attended the Carmel of St. Joseph School in Malad, North Mumbai, and then studied at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai in Fort, South Mumbai.
In 2005, Pinto began a modeling career and joined Elite Model Management India, with whom she worked for two and a half years.
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).
Pinto had four releases in 2011. The first was the science fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series. She played the role of Caroline Aranha, a primatologist who falls in love with the main character, played by James Franco.
Pinto’s second screen appearance of the year was playing the title character in Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna. The film, based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, gave Pinto the role of a teenage Rajasthani peasant, who leaves her family to work for a British-born Indian hotelier, played by Riz Ahmed. It premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and gained a mixed response from critics. Nishat Bari of India Today called Pinto’s role her “most substantial” one to that point.
Pinto’s third film role in 2011 was playing Princess Lailah in the poorly received independent film Day of the Falcon, a period drama set in the 1930s Middle East, where she was cast alongside Antonio Banderas, Mark Strong and Liya Kebede. Despite overall negative reviews, Andy Webster of The New York Times described Pinto and Kebede as “refreshing”.
Pinto became engaged to photographer Cory Tran in November 2019, and they married in 2020 at the Honda Center. She gave birth to their son in November 2021.
After the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Pinto split her time between Mumbai, London, and Los Angeles, and as of 2015 she lives in Los Angeles.
Alongside her acting career, Pinto has been actively involved with several humanitarian causes and is vocal about the uplifting of women and underprivileged children. She has cited Angelina Jolie and Malala Yousafzai as “massive” inspirations in this regard. In 2010, Pinto joined Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf in support of their philanthropic organization, the Agassi Foundation. She raised $75,000 for their annual fundraiser — “The 15th Grand Slam for Children”—which was aimed at providing education for underprivileged children.
