Maitreyi Ramakrishnan chats with Jay Shetty about her acting journey. Breaking through the film industry requires a lot of hard work and a lot of people don’t actually take into consideration the amount of work she has put in to continuously play the title role. Add in a good amount of luck and her will to stand for herself and never shy away from asking questions.

Maitreyi is best known for portraying Devi Vishwakumar, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, in Netflix's hit series, Never Have I Ever. She 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. Maitreyi is very vocal about diversity and standing up for yourself.

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What We Discuss:

00:00 Intro
02:45 Breaking through Hollywood with a South Asian heritage
07:07 Raised to speak up your mind
10:00 “I didn’t like myself.”
14:51 Generational talk divides us
16:53 Having a grandma as your best friend
18:54 When you have family and friends that listen
22:30 The strong passion for acting
25:44 The day she filmed the audition tape
29:48 Always give it your best shot
30:43 The first day and the first scene shoot
34:25 Dealing with impostor syndrome
37:38 Everything happened in different ways for people
41:05 “Respect existence, expect resistance.”
43:42 Not enough representation of true diversity
50:02 The story she stood up for someone
53:14 Maitreyi on Final Five