Dev Patel on ‘Monkey Man,’ Tiny Cars, and Why His First Show Is “the Little Rash That Won’t Go Away”

It’s been 16 years since Dev Patel vaulted into the global public consciousness with his star turn in Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s 2008 Oscar magnet. The intervening years have found Patel demonstrating virtuosic range in roles that include an Arthurian knight, a zealously earnest hotelier, and the David Copperfield. Off the screen, he’s developed range too, with a curriculum vitae that now includes writer, producer, and director.

And for a decade, one project has loomed largest…