Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan ( born 28 December 2001) is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for her leading role as high school student Devi Vishwakumar in the Netflix teen comedy series Never Have I Ever (2020–2023). She appeared in voice roles in the Pixar film Turning Red (2022), and the series My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (2022–2023).

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 comedy-drama 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-drama series Never Have I Ever. In 2019, she was chosen by Mindy Kaling out of 15,000 candidates who 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. She revealed in an interview that she grew up watching Indian actor Vijay in the Indian Tamil-language film Pokkiri, which influenced her to consider an acting career. Her casting received significant media attention, especially in Canada, due to the nature of the open casting call and for her Tamil Canadian identity. That 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".

In April 2020, Never Have I Ever premiered on Netflix. Ramakrishnan's character, Devi Vishwakumar, an Indian-American Tamil high school student, is loosely based on Mindy Kaling. The program ran for four seasons until June 2023. The series and Ramakrishnan's performance received generally positive reviews, *
 * with Variety calling it a "breakout performance". She received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award, a Canadian Screen Award, an MTV Movie & TV Award, and two People's Choice Awards. In July 2020, Netflix reported the series had been viewed by 40 million households globally since its release. In May, Ramakrishnan participated in the live-read series Acting for a Cause, appearing as Olivia for a live staged reading of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, to help raise money for a local hospital in Chicago, which was struggling to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that month, she hosted the livestream segment of the Children's and Youth Programming Category for the 8th Canadian Screen Awards. In February 2021, Ramakrishnan was named as Breakout Actor in Time's Time 100 Next list of the next hundred rising, influential people.
 * with Variety calling it a "breakout performance". She received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award, a Canadian Screen Award, an MTV Movie & TV Award, and two People's Choice Awards. In July 2020, Netflix reported the series had been viewed by 40 million households globally since its release. In May, Ramakrishnan participated in the live-read series Acting for a Cause, appearing as Olivia for a live staged reading of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, to help raise money for a local hospital in Chicago, which was struggling to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that month, she hosted the livestream segment of the Children's and Youth Programming Category for the 8th Canadian Screen Awards. In February 2021, Ramakrishnan was named as Breakout Actor in Time's Time 100 Next list of the next hundred rising, influential people.
 * with Variety calling it a "breakout performance". She received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award, a Canadian Screen Award, an MTV Movie & TV Award, and two People's Choice Awards. In July 2020, Netflix reported the series had been viewed by 40 million households globally since its release. In May, Ramakrishnan participated in the live-read series Acting for a Cause, appearing as Olivia for a live staged reading of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, to help raise money for a local hospital in Chicago, which was struggling to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that month, she hosted the livestream segment of the Children's and Youth Programming Category for the 8th Canadian Screen Awards. In February 2021, Ramakrishnan was named as Breakout Actor in Time's Time 100 Next list of the next hundred rising, influential people.

Ramakrishnan voiced Priya Mangal, an Indian-Canadian mellow, deadpan girl who is one of the protagonist's friends, in the Pixar animated fantasy comedy film Turning Red. The film was released on 11 March 2022 to Disney+ and limited theaters. Ramakrishnan voiced Zipp Storm throughout the content slate for the fifth incarnation of the My Little Pony franchise. The first project, the 2D animated short-form web series, My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale, premiered via YouTube in early April. Its first season concluded in December 2023, and was followed by the second season in January 2024; four specials will premiere in 2024. The series was renewed up to 2026. Ramakrishnan also voiced the character for the animated Netflix series, My Little Pony: Make Your Mark, which premiered in September and was preceded by a special of the same name in May. The series ran for six "chapters" until November 2023. Also in April 2022, Ramakrishnan received the honorary Radius Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards, for her global impact on television. In November, she appeared in a Netflix holiday special tied to the Make Your Mark series, titled My Little Pony: Winter Wishday. It was followed by the third and fourth specials, My Little Pony: Bridlewoodstock and Secrets of Starlight, in June and November 2023. In October 2023, Ramakrishnan had a guest voice role on the adult animated sitcom Big Mouth as Marissa, the new love interest and neighbour of the young fictional version of series co-creator Andrew Goldberg.

Ramakrishnan will star in Freaky Friday 2 (2025); production began in Los Angeles in June 2024. She will be part of a female ensemble—alongside Shirley Chen, Mckenna Grace, Amelie Zilber, Vivian Wu, and Fang Du—in the satirical drama Slanted, from Tideline, a Fox and MarVista Entertainment label. Production began in June in Atlanta. She has also committed to co-lead the Netflix romantic comedy film The Netherfield Girls, a contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice.

Endorsements
In March 2022, Ramakrishnan fronted the spring campaign, "Members Always: Future Together", for clothing retailer American Eagle, alongside Madelyn Cline, Joshua Bassett, Michael Evans Behling, Coco Gauff, and Mxmtoon.

Activism and philanthropy
In October 2020, Ramakrishnan became a global ambassador for humanitarian organization Plan International Canada, to promote girls and women's rights and gender equality. She starred in the 2021 campaign for clothing brand Nobis's #NoColdShoulder initiative, which focuses on collecting and donating used jackets every November.