Upen Patel

Upen Patel was born in Tottenham, North London, England. His parents had moved from Uganda in East Africa to settle down permanently in the United Kingdom. His family ancestry roots trace back to Gujarat, India. His mother is a lawyer working with the government of UK. He attended Wembley High School, London.Patel studied media course at West Herts College, and then moved to the University of Hertfordshire to study for a BSc degree in Computer Science. Patel started modelling in London at an early age. Still in his teens, he started working as a catalogue model.
Patel continued modelling assignments in London, while he was still a student. In 2002, Patel visited India to participate in Zee TV's Supermodel Hunt. He won the contest and came into limelight in the Indian modelling and fashion industry. He, then, appeared in India Fashion Week, New Delhi. Atul Kasbekar, India's leading fashion photographer, chose him to model for designer JJ Valaya's first ever men's couture campaign.

He was judged as the Model of the Year for four consecutive years at the Asia Fashion Award, besides getting featured among the top 10 sexiest men in Asia for five years running. MTV India awarded him as the most stylish male for two years in a row.

Patel has appeared on the covers and editorials for various magazines including GQ, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, L'Officiel, Men’s Health, Grazia, Man’s World, and Stardust.

He has worked with India's biggest designers including Wendell Rodricks, Rohit Bal, Manish Malhotra and JJ Valaya on runway and in campaigns. He has also done modelling projects with global fashion leaders including Versace, Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna and Tommy Hilfiger.

Patel has done various TV commercials.
In May 2006, Patel made his Bollywood début with the film 36 China Town, directed by the duo Abbas-Mustan, and also starred Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna. The film did fairly well at the box office and Patel won the IIFA Award for Best Début (Male).

His next Bollywood movie, Namaste London, released in March 2007, with the star-cast of Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, was a box office success. The film was shot in India and UK, and Patel played the character of a Pakistani Muslim living in London.

A month later, in April 2007, his third film Shakalaka Boom Boom was released, which was produced and directed by Suneel Darshan. The film failed to do good business at the box office and was declared a flop.

In his next movie, Money Hai Toh Honey Hai, he played the role of a struggling model hoping to make it big. The film also featured Govinda, Aftab Shivdasani, Hansika Motwani and Celina Jaitley and hit the big screens in July 2008.

Patel made a guest appearance in March 2008 film, One Two Three.

After a gap of almost one and half year, his subsequent movie, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, was released in November 2009. The film starred Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in lead roles. The film was a hit at the box office.

Patel is set to make his début in Tamil film industry with the movie, I, scheduled to be released in January 2015, and would feature the star-cast of Vikram, Suresh Gopi and British actress Amy Jackson.