Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, a Canadian Tamil actress from Ontario, made headlines after being cast in Mindy Kaling’s Netflix series Never Have I Ever, beating 15,000 other girls to the role, despite having no professional acting experience.

After being persuaded by a friend to audition, Ramakrishnan filmed her tape at a local library with her mother’s camera before being invited to Los Angeles for a screen test and being offered the job aged 17, deferring a place in college to move to Los Angeles. The aspiring actress champions diversity and representation in the South Asian community, speaking about the importance of her heritage and refusing to shorten her Tamil name for ‘public consumption’.