In a culture that is so focused on sticking to old ideals, it is a breath of fresh air to finally see the faces of BIPOCs in mainstream media. Recently named as one of TIMES100 NEXT, a list of up-and-coming influencers, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is someone to watch as she works with Mindy Kaling to highlight Southeast Asians through the media.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is a 19-year-old Tamil Canadian actress who stars in the Netflix show “Never Have I Ever.” Her character, Devi Vishwakumar, is the outspoken daughter of immigrants living in Los Angeles. The show covers a wide range of topics that many teenagers can understand, especially those who have experienced some of Southeast Asian culture. The central conflict for Devi is trying to navigate high school while she is dealing with the recent death of her father. In addition to this, Devi vows to reinvent herself along with her two friends, Fabiola and Eleanor. The awkward fumbling of these characters is one of the most relatable high school presentations I have ever seen. The characters are all uniquely their own with fun personalities that seem larger than life.
One of the biggest things about this show is how it gracefully shows Southeast Asian culture and the experiences of immigrant children. There are plot points about arranged marriages, pieces of Hinduism, cultural holidays like Ganesh Puja, separation from family, and parent-child tensions. Devi goes through culture denial in an attempt to be as normal as possible, but eventually begins to see the beauty in her culture.
This is one of my favorite shows from Summer 2020. It made me laugh and cry. They managed to beautifully tackle tough conversations about trauma caused by the death of a family member and the shift in family dynamic. All of the characters seemed relatively authentic and although there were still plenty of tropes, their struggles felt real. It was refreshing to see a different culture being celebrated in a TV show that can appeal to most audiences.
“Never Have I Ever” is Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s first major role and she does an amazing job bringing Devi to life. Her vivaciousness and tenacity breaks Western constructed stereotypes about Southeast Asians. Devi is confident, loud, funny, smart, courageous, and so much more. She is definitely living the main-character life. She is a beautiful contrast to her seemingly perfect cousin Kamala, who fits more of the perfect Indian stereotype on the surface, but is revealed to be more rebellious than she appears. The show is loosely based on Mindy Kaling’s childhood and the struggles she faced as a Southeast Asian-American. Maitreyi notes in an interview with Deadline that while it is Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s vision, she gets to bring a lot of her own personality to the character, especially with wording choices. Her artistic view for the character involves hopefully moving towards Devi being able to love herself.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is certainly an actress to watch in the coming years as the film industry (hopefully) continues to understand and accept that there is a need for more voices and more representation in the media. Although she has only been on one show so far, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is already making her mark on young people. Her representation of Southeast Asian culture in such a predominantly white-male-centric industry pushes back against America’s cultural stereotypes. It will be interesting to see what doors this show will open for Maitreyi and how she will continue to make an impact on our society.
Originally published on March 10, 2021
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.