The story of Devi Vishwakumar and her awkward high school experiences will continue.
Netflix has renewed Mindy Kaling‘s coming-of-age comedy series “Never Have I Ever” for a second season. The news comes just over two months after the show launched to critical acclaim.
Season 2 will of course see newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who beat out 15,000 other actors via an open casting call to win the lead role, return alongside Poorna Jagannathan (who plays Devi’s mother Dr. Nalini Vishwakumar), Richa Moorjani (who plays her cousin Kamala), Jaren Lewison (who plays her high school nemesis Ben Gross), Darren Barnet (who plays her crush Paxton Hall-Yoshida) and Lee Rodriguez and Ramona Young (who play Devi’s best friends).
Kaling co-created the series with Lang Fisher, who serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. The Universal Television project is also executive produced by 3 Arts Entertainment’s Howard Klein and David Miner.
“Never Have I Ever” centers around the complicated life of Devi, a modern-day first-generation Indian American teenage girl. The character is overachieving high school sophomore who has a short fuse that gets her into difficult situations. In addition to the ultra-relatable high school drama about fitting in, searching for love and trying to figure out who you are, Devi is also dealing with the sudden death of her father.
Ramakrishnan spoke with Variety about how she was cast and the show’s relatability
“It’s awesome because I’m seeing so many people saying, ‘Oh my God, I can relate to this so much.’ Whether it’s something as simple as one of the arm hair jokes — because let’s be real, even though I’m 100% confident with my arm hair, there are days where I go up to my father and I say, ‘Why did you do this to me? Why can’t you give me anything else?’” Ramakrishnan told Variety‘s Angelique Jackson. “Or somebody saying, ‘Thank you, this made me really realize I have some unpacking to do with the loss of a family member’…That’s all I wanted from this show. Emmys for the cast, Emmys for the direction, a Nobel Peace Prize — I’m not opposed — but, in all seriousness, this is all I wanted from the show.”
The series is produced in association with 3 Arts, Original Langster, and Kaling International.
