Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was one of approximately 15,000 hopefuls answering an open casting call on Twitter from producer Kaling. While Ramakrishnan was wending her way through auditions, she was also getting ready to play Velma Kelly in her high school production of “Chicago.” She enlisted her best friend to read with her for her audition tape.

LOS ANGELES – An unknown Indo-Canadian actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan has suddenly hit the big time after starring in a hit Netflix comedy series ‘Never Have I Ever’.

The Tamil-Canadian actor is the first teenager of South Asian descent to star in an American comedy series, getting the part of Devi in Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever” straight out of high school with no pro acting credits. Her work was praised by critics and viewers alike,” reported Variety magazine. 

Then just 17, Ramakrishnan was one of approximately 15,000 hopefuls answering an open casting call on Twitter from producer Kaling. While Ramakrishnan was wending her way through auditions, she was also getting ready to play Velma Kelly in her high school production of “Chicago.” She enlisted her best friend to read with her for her audition tape.

“I like how Mindy and Lang (Fisher), the whole writing team, created that character because it was very real. It was a realistic teenager,” says Ramakrishnan. 

“And a lot of it was my experiences when I was 15 and I like to think I had a sweet spot. I’m not too old to forget being 15 and cringey. You know, exactly 15, where I don’t realize it’s cringey, definitely cringey. Devi does a lot of cringey things, but when I was reading it with my friend, we could see myself in it but also some of my friends. It was really a good, realistic character that many could relate to,” she adds.

Out of all the thousands of tapes they viewed, says Greenstein, Ramakrishnan’s stood out— not just for her acting, though that was stellar, but for her preparation.

There were more audition tapes, more readings, then Ramakrishnan was flying from Canada to Los Angeles for a screen test, all while rehearsing Velma at home. She clinched the part when she did her only reading with the actor who would play Devi’s mom, Poorna Jagannathan.

“Poorna had just been cast and she read with a few finalists, and it was interesting to see the chemistry those two had right away, that first time in the room together. I remember we all kind of laughed and we went around the room saying, ‘Who do you guys think it is?’” says Daniel. “And I remember everyone saying, ‘Well, it’s clearly Maitreyi’s part.’ I mean, the chemistry between them is so fantastic.”

In “Never Have I Ever,” 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Ramakrishnan) is a high school sophomore, navigating the angst of the teen years while also trying to not confront the untimely death of her father (Sendhil Ramamurthy). 

Instead of going through a grieving period, Devi chooses to quickly move on and focus all of her energy on getting good grades in order to be eligible for an Ivy League university (her dermatologist mother’s fervent ambition for her) and a newfound crush on the high school dreamboat, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet).

The actor says her biggest challenge didn’t come until near the end of the season, where she had a very emotional scene with Jagannathan that required crying on cue in episode nine. 

“It was really intense, but one thing I was really nervous about in the whole series was crying. That’s one thing I never had to do in high school theater. That was probably my biggest jump, because this is what differentiates real actors to just normal people,” she says. 

However, her castmates had her back and helped her find the confidence to nail the performance.  

“I was really proud of how [the scene] came out, but it was still challenging,” Ramakrishnan says.

The series has been a success with audiences and critics. Netflix recently renewed the show for a second season.  

Courtesy Variety