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Though actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s latest role sees her playing a superhero that can talk to crows on The Boys, her breakthrough performance was as the lead of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, a charming teen comedy that follows the coming-of-age journey of an Indian American girl in Los Angeles. Ramakrishnan played Devi Vishwakumar, an ambitious teen left reeling in the wake of her father’s death, and the show was consistently praised for its diverse cast and thoughtful depictions of teenage life, grief, friendship, and romance.
Never Have I Ever ended after four seasons in 2023, with a sweet and largely happy finale that included Devi getting into Princeton and officially starting a relationship with her former nemesis-turned-crush Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison). But that hasn’t kept fans from asking Ramakrishnan whether the show might continue someday, although the actress has done her best to draw a line in the sand about this possibility, often telling journalists that, in her mind, Devi is dead. From her point of view, saying goodbye to this character was a decisively final act, and one that’s meant to help fans move on.
“My fans have made me compilation videos of all the times I’ve said that I think she’s just dead. I’m so glad people are seeing that,” she tells Den of Geek. “Not because — and let me be so clear here — me saying ‘I hope Devi’s dead’ is not me telling people ‘Hey, don’t talk to me about Never Have I Ever.’ I love the show. I’m so proud of it. I love to continue to talk about it because the show is amazing. But it also ended when it needed to. You never want to watch a show and say, ‘Wow, those later seasons are not as great, but those beginning seasons are awesome.’ No! I can say confidently, top down, Never Have I Ever is amazing.”
For Ramakrishnan, the series is best kept alive post-finale by its fans and their theories about what happened next to its characters. Particularly because the Netflix show concludes at a place where viewers can embrace whatever ideas they want about the characters’ futures.
“Honestly, I love seeing people’s TikToks of them fantasizing about what Devi’s up to,” she continues. “It’s good! I’d rather take your guys’ fanfic than make something canon for everyone. Except for the fact that Devi is canonically dead. That’s my fanfic. What’s yours?”
One of the reasons Never Have I Ever became so popular is that it’s a teen-focused series that took the experience of being a teenager seriously. Yes, it featured characters who aren’t often centered in this particular genre, and it reckoned with some very adult issues. But at the end of the day, it treated its subject matter with respect and trusted its audience to come along for the ride.
“We all have a teen in our hearts. We’re not very far off from your younger selves, you know?” Ramakrishnan says. “I do think there are some good teen shows out there, but I think it’s kind of the same effect as like – and I put this in quotes because I don’t agree with this term – but “the chick flick” of it all. I love a rom-com, as do most people! And I can’t remember who said this recently, but if you want to go pound for pound, you want to make it a numbers game, look at the numbers from Mama Mia to like Barbie at the box office. Look at the point-proof evidence of a show like The Summer I Turned Pretty or Never Have I Ever, where the viewership is insane.”
After all, the viewer numbers don’t lie. And neither do the diverse experiences that Ramakrishnan has had with the show’s fans in the real world.
“One of my favorite things about Never Have I Ever is that a lot of people watch it who might have [initially] assumed, oh, that’s the brown girl show, that’s the show for brown girls. But, actually no, because I have some crazy fan interactions with people you wouldn’t expect,” she says.
“I was in Atlanta in the middle of the summer, and the show’s already been out and done for over a year. This group of like four white boys with their curly hair perms and gold chains come up to me in the middle of a peach picking farm and say, ‘Miss? Sorry, but are you Maitreyi Ramakrishnan?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, hi,’ and they get all excited like, ‘Yeah, bro! I knew it was her, I told you! It’s literally Devi, oh my God, Devi’s my GOAT. I was such a Devi in high school!’ And I was like what the fuck?
“I wish I had moments like those recorded because it just shows me that these are experiences everyone had at that age. It’s a testament to a good show. When a good show, with good writing, is given the space and resources to create a story, you’ll feel the results on the back end. And maybe, if we invest in good writing and creative human — notice I said human! — thoughts, you get a good show, because that’s what it’s about.”
As Never Have I Ever has more than proven, good stories have the ability to transcend genres and speak to all sorts of viewers.
“Just watch what you want to watch. I think people are too worried about what other people think, you know?” Ramakrishnan says. “Never Have I Ever was just a damn good show. The writing is spectacular. The acting was funny as hell. Mindy [Kaling] and Lang [Fisher, showrunners] ran that show like a tight ship, and it still shows because people are still talking about Never Have I Ever today.”
As for what’s next for the young woman who played Devi, Ramakrishnan is busy filming the second season of Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel series, and is set to lead a feature comedy set in the raucous world of collegiate Bollywood dance competitions.
“Right now, I’m working on Elle season 2, which is very good and very exciting. See, bring back teen shows!” she laughs. “But it’s been a blast and is very, very fun. And then I have a movie coming out, a dance movie, like Bring It On or Step Up, and it’s with Netflix. It’s also the first time I’m getting to lead a film, which is very exciting. I’m really ready for that movie to come out in particular because I think it’s gonna be a big hit, like genuinely.”
But, for the most part, the actress is still taking her career as it comes.
“I have a lot of aspirations and dreams, but I’m also open to the dreams I don’t know that I have yet,” Ramakrishnan says. “Especially in my job, I don’t know what is going to come into my inbox tomorrow. I didn’t know The Boys was going to come into my inbox, for example. And I would love to do more action and things that center around powers or magic. I’ve been on a real fantasy kick. Powers, magic, all that jazz. I’d love it.”
The post Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Talks Never Have I Ever and Why We Need More Teen Dramas Today appeared first on Den of Geek.
