TORONTO – A Mississauga teenager has nabbed the lead role in Mindy Kaling‘s new Netflix comedy.
The streaming service says Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is a newcomer to acting who will make her on-screen debut in the untitled project as Devi, described as “a modern-day first generation Indian American teenage girl.”
Netflix says Ramakrishnan was chosen out of 15,000 responses from a worldwide open casing call that began with an online post from the “The Office” actress and “Mindy Project” star.
The untitled series is co-created, co-written and executive produced by Kaling and Lang Fisher, whose writing credits include “The Mindy Project” and “Brooklyn Nine Nine.”
Netflix describes Devi as an overachieving high school sophomore who has a short fuse that gets her into difficult situations.
Ramakrishnan was born in Mississauga and did not have representation when she was cast.