Growing up in the town of Mississauga in Ontario, Canada, Never Have I Ever star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan confesses she often found herself wondering about her selfhood.
Presently, at 19, she has a firm grasp of who she is.
“Firstly, for me, I identify myself as Tamil Canadian. Tamil being my culture, and Canada being my country,” the vivacious teenager informs StarLifestyle in an exclusive video interview.
“Growing up, of course, I was asking myself a lot of questions like, what does it mean to be Tamil? What is Tamil exactly? Is it just a language? Is it a culture? Like, what is it?
“And I had to learn how to appreciate my culture and genuinely, actually, appreciate my family and the culture that they bring into my life,” continues the Canada-born Maitreyi. Her parents who were born in Sri Lanka, came to Canada in their 20s during the Sri Lankan Civil War period.
She says she has an aunt and cousins who are Malaysians.
Maitreyi goes on: “Personally, my favourite thing about Tamil culture is just, you know, the food is really good. But besides the food, my favourite thing is that Tamil people are such hard workers.
“We are hard workers, because we know how to hustle because we’ve had to hustle. So, a lot of us are just always, you know, moving along, getting the most done, achieving and trying to always do the best, which I appreciate the most about my culture personally.”
That attitude is something that Maitreyi (pronounced My-tray-ee) brought to the set of Never Have I Ever playing the show’s lead role, which she nabbed having beat out 15,000 hopefuls in an open casting call.
The series also marked Maitreyi’s first professional acting role; she’s only done plays at her high school’s productions at that point.
When the first season of Never Have I Ever was released last year, the series’ co-creator Mindy Kaling told Los Angeles Times she’s impressed with the teen’s work ethic.
“To go from being the lead in your school play to shooting 12 hours a day, five days a week on a Hollywood set, with rehearsals on the weekend, was a big transition for her, but Maitreyi’s work ethic was incredible.
“We had several days of night shoots for the pilot, and Maitreyi is in every scene. Her cheerful and psyched attitude through that was truly amazing,” Kaling, who is an actress herself, said.
The coming-of-age comedy centres on Devi, a 15-year-old Indian American girl navigating high school while dealing with the loss of her father.
In the first season, Devi distracts herself from confronting her grief by focusing on finding a boyfriend.
Unfortunately, her grand plan keeps hitting a stumbling block and, along the way as well, she starts to alienate her best friends (played by Ramona Young and Lee Rodriguez).
In the second season, things are kind of looking up for Devi in the love department; she’s now the the centre of, not one but two boys’ attention (Jaren Lewison and Darren Barnet).
However, at home, she is still butting heads with her mother (Poorna Jagannathan) on some matters, refusing to see it from her mum’s point of view like a spoilt child.
Not to mention, Devi’s school life is upended when another Indian girl joins her class and easily wins over her schoolmates something nerdy Devi could never do (cue: teen jealousy rearing its ugly head).
It doesn’t help either that Devi’s bad temper gets the best of her at the worst times.
With so much going on in Devi’s life, we asks the actress what her mother thinks of Devi’s behaviour?
“My mum thinks she’s a hot mess. I think she’s a hot mess. It’s true. She’s a hot mess,” a cheerful Maitreyi replies, smiling.
“But we’re also rooting for her... because she’s a good kid. She’s trying to be good.
“And my mum knows she’s a 15-year-old-girl. She’s raised a 15-year-old girl. So, she knows that Devi is just trying her best.
“She’s making a lot of mistakes, but at the end of the day, she’s a good kid.”
While the young actress nails Devi’s teenage angst oh-so-perfectly on the show, Maitreyi herself comes across as a more level-headed youngster in this interview, and also in many others interviews she has done since becoming the breakout star of the Netflix show.
On what one advice Maitreyi would give 15-year-old Devi, she starts with: “One piece of advice? She needs a lot more than one.
“But if I give her one piece of advice, I’d probably tell her it’s OK to not be perfect. And that it’s OK to mess up. Because sometimes, of course, she messes up.
“And, you know, she does tend to make the wrong choices. But deep down, she does feel bad about that.
“She doesn’t want to mess up. She doesn’t want to disappoint people. She takes out a lot on herself.
“So, I would just tell her, it’s OK to mess up. But you got to just repair the mistakes that you’ve made.”
With four years age difference between her and Devi, it may sound like Maitreyi has almost nothing in common with the character she plays on TV, other than being a daughter of immigrant parents and sharing similar upbringing.
But Maitreyi mentions that she feels very much connected with what’s going on in Devi’s life.
“One thing that I related to the most – and honestly, there’s a lot – is what Devi goes through when it comes to figuring out her identity, figuring out, you know, that self-love and appreciating who she is,” she explains.
“When I was a kid, and honestly, still am now, that is definitely something that I went through, figuring out how to love yourself and be your own best friend. I think that’s something that you continue to do for your entire life.”
What is for sure is that audiences all over the world have fallen in love with Maitreyi and the show.
Similar to how Stranger Things has propelled its young actors to stardom, Maitreyi is garnering attention too.
In May, she was named one of Gold House’s 100 Most Impactful Asians along with US vice president Kamala Harris, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao and K-pop group Blackpink.
(Gold House is a nonprofit that seeks to elevate Asian voices and their cultural impact on society by reshaping public opinion through affirming media portrayals.)
And in June, Maitreyi landed her first film gig. She will be playing the key role of Lizzie Bennet in an updated Gen Z version of Pride And Prejudice.
The performer is the first to admit that there are “a lot of awesome parts” that have come from being involved in Never Have I Ever.
Maitreyi shares her favourite: “Getting the role was probably one of the happiest things in my entire life.
“But I’ve only been alive for 19 years. So, I don’t know how important that is.”
Seasons One and Two of Never Have I Ever are available on Netflix.
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