Meet Himesh Patel: The Indian-origin British actor stealing the spotlight in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Meet Himesh Patel: The Indian-origin British actor stealing the spotlight in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey")
Himesh Patel plays a key role in Nolan's The Odyssey
Indian origin British actor Himesh Patel has been earning rave reviews for his performance in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, where he plays second in command to Odysseus. Where have you seen Himesh Patel before The Odyssey?
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now in cinemas. The film has been in the news for the last one month for its scale, the star-studded cast and for being shot on IMAX cameras. While Hollywood A-listers like Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and Charlize Theron are busy promoting the film across the world, there is a renewed interest among fans in Indian-origin British actor Himesh Patel, who played the second in command to Damon’s Odysseus in Nolan’s magnum opus.
Meet Himesh Patel
You may have seen Himesh Patel in BBC EastEnders and Danny Boyle’s Yesterday. Patel has been working in films and British TV series for a long time and is familiar in UK’s showbiz circle. Born in Huntingdon to parents of Gujarati heritage who emigrated from East Africa, Patel made his acting debut in EastEnders in 2007.
His parents are both Indian Gujarati Hindus who ran a newsagent's shop in Cambridgeshire. His mother was born in Zambia and his father was born in Kenya. The 35-year-old grew up speaking Gujarati and English.
The 36-year-old actor was inclined towards acting from an early age as he attended Prince William School in Oundle, Northamptonshire. As a child, he impersonated his favourite characters on television and film.
When he was 11, he was cast in a school play, This Is Your Life, Santa Claus, as Michael Aspel. Thanks to his early interest in acting in plays in school, one of his teachers convinced his parents to sign him up for a local theatre group.
Where have you seen Himesh Patel before?
Patel’s professional career began at a young age. At 16, he landed the role of Tamwar Masood in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and went on to work on the show for nine years, co-writing an episode of its spin-off EastEnders: E20, starring in the web-series Tamwar Tales, and winning an Inside Soap Award alongside co-actor Meryl Fernandes.
An Emmy nomination for HBO's Station Eleven (2021) and appearances in Tenet (2020) and Don't Look Up (2021) cemented his standing in the big league.
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In 2021, his role in Netflix’s Don't Look Up earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as part of its ensemble cast. The film featured actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Timothee Chalamet in key roles.
Patel also stepped into the role of Dr John Watson in Enola Holmes 2 (2022) and Enola Holmes 3 (2026), featuring actors Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill. His other recent projects include Netflix's Good Grief (2023), the sci-fi drama The Assessment (2024) with Elizabeth Olsen, and a leading role in the HBO comedy series The Franchise (2024).
After The Odyssey, Patel will star opposite Danielle Deadwyler in Ryan Coogler’s upcoming The X-Files reboot.
What is Himesh Patel's role in The Odyssey?
In Nolan’s latest, Patel plays Eurylochus who is the second-in-command of Odysseus' ship during the return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. The character challenges Odysseus's decisions while remaining central to the crew's survival.
In Homer's epic poem, he is portrayed as an unpleasant, cowardly individual who often stirs up trouble. Accordingly to Greek Mythology, he was also Odysseus’s brother-in-law, married to his sister Ctimene.
Himesh Patel’s family
The actor is known to be fiercely private about his personal life but is known to be a father to a baby girl. He occasionally speaks about marriage and parenthood in interviews without divulging much information. In an interview with Red Online UK, he reflected on fatherhood and said, "It isn’t easy. I am leaning on my partner and my support network. I feel privileged to be able to do that, but it doesn’t make it any easier being away. Everything else takes a back seat. Your ego has to sit somewhere else for a moment. It’s given me a whole new focus."
