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“It’s about time we had a show like this,”

author Jeetendr Sehdev wrote for Forbes.

“For years, South Asians have been raised with

next to no positive representation on U.S.

television — we’ve mainly been represented

as terrorists.”

Devi is played by 18-year-old Canadian

newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who got the

role after being plucked from an open casting

call that drew 15,000 hopefuls. Her last acting

experience before landing the role was a high

school play.

“It’s amazing how sometimes certain things

just fall into your life,” Ramakrishnan said in a

recent interview.

Ramakrishnan laughed about having to tell

her parents that she sent videos of herself to

people she didn’t know in Los Angeles for the

casting call.

“My mom and my dad, they knew that I

originally sent in the tape but I never kept

them updated on it until I had to go to L.A., so

that was a fun conversation to tell them that

I sent in my videos to somebody in L.A. who I

don’t know — just videos of myself,” she said. “It

sounds a little weird. But I was explaining to my

mom and my dad, ‘This is legit. This is real.’ They

were like, ‘OK, let’s get this into gear. Let’s figure

out how to do this right, do it properly.’”

Even though Ramakrishnan is playing a

character created by Kaling and loosely based

on the actor-writer’s childhood — not to

mention that Kaling is her boss and a personal

hero — the teen said she hasn’t felt too

much pressure.

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