Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan ( ; born 28 December 2001) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her leading role as high school student Devi Vishwakumar in the Netflix teen comedy series Never Have I Ever (2020–2023) and for her voice role in the Pixar film Turning Red (2022). Early life and education Ramakrishnan was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario. She was born to Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu parents who immigrated to Canada as refugees due to the Sri Lankan Civil War. She identifies herself as Tamil Canadian rather than Sri Lankan. She went to Lisgar Middle School for elementary and graduated from Meadowvale Secondary School. Ramakrishnan made the decision to pursue an acting career in her last year at Meadowvale, and got the role in the Netflix teen romance series Never Have I Ever less than a year after. She deferred her acceptance to the theatre program at York University in Toronto, which she had initially planned to attend the fall after she graduated high school, so she could shoot the series in Los Angeles. In 2021, she deferred her acceptance a second time, while also switching her degree to human rights and equity studies. Career Ramakrishnan made her professional acting debut as Devi Vishwakumar, the protagonist, in the Netflix teen comedy streaming television series Never Have I Ever. In 2019, she was chosen by Mindy Kaling out of 15,000 candidates that had applied for an open casting call for the show. Ramakrishnan created her audition tape at a local library, using her mother's camera, eventually being asked to send four more videos, before having a screen test in Los Angeles and being offered the role. Ramakrishnan was 17 at the time of her casting and had not acted professionally. Maitreyi revealed in an interview that she grew up watching Vijay's acting in Pokkiri and it was one of the influences to consider a acting career. Her casting received significant media attention, especially in Canada, both due to the nature of the open casting call and for her Tamil Canadian identity. That same year, Today named her one of eighteen "Groundbreakers" on the International Day of The Girl, a list of girls who were breaking down barriers and changing the world.