Maitreyi Ramakrishnan 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 Eelam Tamil Hindu parents who immigrated to Canada as refugees from Sri Lanka due to the 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.

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. Both the series and Ramakrishnan's performance received 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.

In March 2022, Ramakrishnan was announced as a brand ambassador for clothing retailer American Eagle's "Member's Always: Future Together" campaign along with Madelyn Cline, Joshua Bassett, Michael Evans Behling, Coco Gauff, and Mxmtoon. That month, she also 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 on Disney+ and at limited theaters. Ramakrishnan was revealed to voice 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 on YouTube in early April. She also voiced the character for the CGI-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 second season premiered in June 2023. That same month, she 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, Ramakrishnan 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 special, My Little Pony: Bridlewoodstock, in June 2023.

Ramakrishnan will star in the upcoming Netflix romantic comedy film The Netherfield Girls, a contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, which will mark her film acting debut.

Facts

• Is of Tamil descent
• Considered pursuing a career as an animator before considering her career as an actress
• Was encouraged by her drama teacher to start a career in acting
• Is a big fan of Marvel Comics and Disney
• Is a fan of the Toronto Raptors basketball team