Never Have I Ever (TV series)

Never Have I Ever
Genre	Comedy-drama
Created by	Mindy Kaling Lang Fisher
Starring	Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Darren Barnet Ramona Young Lee Rodriguez Richa Moorjani Poorna Jagannathan Jaren Lewison John McEnroe
Narrated by	John McEnroe Andy Samberg
Composer	Joseph Stephens
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Mindy Kaling Lang Fisher Howard Klein David Miner Tristram Shapeero Abdullahi yakasai
Production locations	Los Angeles, California
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22–30 minutes
Production companies	Kaling International, Inc. Original Langster 3 Arts Entertainment Universal Television
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)

Never Have I Ever is an American coming of age comedy-drama television series starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher. The comedy is partially based on Kaling’s real childhood story, growing up in the Boston area. It premiered on Netflix on April 27, 2020, and is about an Indian American high school student dealing with the death of her father. The series received positive reviews.

The series has been described as a watershed moment for South Asian representation in Hollywood and has been praised for breaking Asian stereotypes.

Plot

The story centers around Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a 15-year-old Tamil Indian American high school girl from Sherman Oaks, California. After a horrible freshman year, Devi wants to change her social status, but friends, family, and feelings do not make it easy for her.

After Devi’s father, Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy) passes away, Devi loses the use of her legs for three months. The following year, she tries to deal with her grief, Indian identity and school life, also struggling with her relationship with her controlling mother, Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan), her beautiful cousin, Kamala (Richa Moorjani), her 2 best friends, Eleanor (Ramona Young) and Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez), her high school crush, Paxton (Darren Barnet), and her nemesis, Ben (Jaren Lewison).

The series is mostly narrated by professional tennis player John McEnroe, with one of the episodes narrated by Andy Samberg.

Casting process

Chemistry reads are usually part of a casting process, but for the Never Have I ever casting process none of the actors had to do chemistry reads. Everybody met at the first table read which is unusual.

Cast

Main

• Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi Vishwakumar, a 15 year old high school sophomore student who wants to improve her life. Interestingly, the name Devi is in reference to the meaning of Mindy Kalings real first name "Vera" - an incarnation of a goddess i.e. a Devi.
• Darren Barnet as Paxton Hall-Yoshida, a 16 year old high school junior student who is retaking history and he is Devi's crush.
• Ramona Young as Eleanor Wong, a high school sophomore student and one of Devi's best friends who enjoys acting.
• Lee Rodriguez as Fabiola Torres, a high school sophomore student and Devi's other best friend who enjoys science and she is struggling with her sexual identity.
• Richa Moorjani as Kamala, Devi's cousin. She is staying with her while completing her PhD at Caltech.
• Poorna Jagannathan as Dr. Nalini Vishwakumar, Devi's mother who is a dermatologist.
• Jaren Lewison as Ben Gross, a high school sophomore student and Devi's nemesis at school.
• John McEnroe as Himself, the narrator of the series.

Recurring

• Niecy Nash as Dr. Jamie Ryan, Devi’s therapist.
• Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohan Viswakumar, Devi's father.
• Eddie Liu as Steve, Kamala’s boyfriend.
• Christina Kartchner as Eve, Fabiola's love interest.
• Benjamin Norris as Trent Harrison, Paxton's friend.
• Dino Petrera as Jonah Sharpe, a boy who comes out as gay.
• Jae Suh Park as Joyce Wong, Eleanor's mother.
• Adam Shapiro as Mr. Shapiro, a history teacher.
• Cocoa Brown as Principal Grubbs.
• Martin Martinez as Oliver Martinez, Eleanor's boyfriend.
• Jack Seavor McDonald as Eric Perkins, an unpopular student.
• Lily D. Moore as Rebecca, Paxton’s sister.
• Hanna Stein as Shira, Ben’s girlfriend.
• Angela Kinsey as Vivian, Ben's mother.
• Michael Badalucco as Howard, Ben's father.
• Donna Pieroni as Patty, Ben's housekeeper.
• Dana Vaughns as Marcus Jones, Paxton's friend.
• Aitana Rinab as Zoe Maytag, Shira's friend.

Guest

• Markus Jorgensen as Boris, an exchange student.
• Gilberto Ortiz as Alex Gomez, a young man interested in Fabiola.
• Chelly as Parvesh, Vishwakumar family friend.
• Peter James Smith as Mr. Chan, the orchestra teacher.
• Kikéy Castillo as Christina Harrison, Trent's mother.
• Atticus Shaffer as Russia, a young man who participates in the UN model.
• Iqbal Theba as Aaravind, Vishwakumar's uncle.
• Mark Collier as Andy, Vishwakumar's neighbor.
• Adriyah Marie Young as Carley, Shira's friend.
• Andy Samberg as Himself, the narrator for Ben Gross's thoughts.
• Rushi Kota as Prashant, Kamala's date for an arranged marriage.
• Pragathi Guruprasad as Preethi's sister.
• Anjul Nigam as Raj, a pandit at the Ganesh Puja celebration.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Pilot"	Tristram Shapeero	Mindy Kaling & Lang Fisher	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
After her dad dies and she is in a wheelchair for her freshman year, Devi comes up with a plan to have a good sophomore year. She pleads with best friends Eleanor and Fabiola to get boyfriends, so that the group become cool. However, when she discovers that Eleanor has a boyfriend, she has a breakdown and asks classmate Paxton if he wants to have sex. Devi's cousin Kamala is told that her marriage is being arranged.
2	"... had sex with Paxton Hall-Yoshida"	Tristram Shapeero	Justin Noble	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Devi leaves orchestra practice early to go to Paxton's house, but leaves when she does not feel ready to have sex. Kamala meets with her secret boyfriend, and tells him that she cannot see him anymore due to her arranged marriage.
3	"... gotten drunk with the popular kids"	Linda Mendoza	Amina Munir	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
In history class, Devi is delighted when Paxton asks her to be in his group, but overhears him saying he asked her to get a good grade. Eleanor and Fabiola team up with Eve, who Fabiola has a crush on. Fabiola then breaks up with her boyfriend and realises she is gay. Devi invites herself to a party, and sees Paxton flirting with Zoe. A drunk Devi sees a coyote at the party, and believing it has the spirit of her dad, she talks to it. It attacks her, and Paxton takes her to the hospital. At the hospital, Paxton affirms that they are just friends. Inspired by a Riverdale scene, Kamala reconciles with her boyfriend.
4	"... felt super Indian"	Linda Mendoza	Mindy Kaling	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
At a Hindu convention at the school, Devi's mother Nalini asks Devi to smooth talk Ron, who is a college admissions advisor. Ron asks Devi to use her dad's death and her paralysis as a story to get into college, but she refuses. At the convention, Kamala meets a woman who is shunned due to refusing her arranged marriage. She tells Kamala to go ahead with her marriage.
5	"... started a nuclear war"	Kabir Akhtar	Chris Schleicher & Akshara Sekar	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Fabiola gathers her family members to come out, but avoids telling them. Paxton tells Eleanor that her mother served them in a restaurant, despite her being told that she is working on a cruise as an actress. Fabiola accompanies her to the restaurant, where they see her mother. Afterwards, she comes out to Eleanor, who supports her. Devi joins Model UN, and fuels the lie that she and Paxton are sleeping together. She and nemesis Ben join forces to get the members alcohol. The next day, Devi turns against him in UN, and gets the members to stand alongside her. Paxton then confronts her and asks why she would use him.
6	"... been the loneliest boy in the world"	Kabir Akhtar	Aaron Geary & Ben Steiner	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Ben returns home from Model UN to his mother leaving for a self realisation resort. Planning to see a game court-side with his girlfriend and father, both cancel on him, so he gives the tickets to his housekeeper. Feeling lonely, he meets with a friend from an online forum, who turns out to be a 50-year-old man. Ben sees Nalini about a pimple, and she invites him to a dinner with her and the Vishwakumars. Initially upset with Ben coming over, Devi is pleasantly surprised when he does not expose her behavior at Model UN. Voiceover by Andy Samberg
7	"... been a big, fat liar"	Anu Valia	Erica Oyama	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Devi tries to make it up to Eleanor and Fabiola. She visits Eleanor's mother and tells her to talk to Eleanor. She comes to the school and watches Eleanor rehearse for the play, but leaves midway through to go back to broadway. Distraught, Eleanor quits acting. Fabiola asks Devi to support her, but when Paxton texts her, she goes to his house instead.
8	"... pissed off everyone I know"	Anu Valia	Chris Schleicher	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Eleanor and Fabiola decide to take a break from Devi, so she goes to see her therapist. She tells Devi that all the drama is coming from the grief over her dad, and Devi says that she wants a new therapist. Ben throws a party for his birthday, and after Devi finds Kamala with boyfriend Steve, she makes Kamala sneak her to the party. After Devi learns that a classmate ruined the punch, she sees Fabiola about to drink it. She goes to swipe the drink from her, but accidentally spills the bowl of punch over her. Fabiola argues with her in front of the crowd, and accidentally comes out. Eve, who overheard, arranges a date with her. After Devi falls in the pool, Paxton takes her home and kisses her.
9	"... had to be on my best behavior"	Tristram Shapeero	Matt Warburton	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Kamala's arranged husband meets with the family over lunch for the first time. Devi enters Kamala's room to place a present that she got only to find that Steve is in there, waiting to rescue Kamala from her arranged marriage. At Devi's behest, Kamala talk with Steve to sort things out. Nalini walks in on them and reveals that she knew about the two as a couple. Paxton arrives to return Devi's dress from the party, and accidentally reveals that Devi secretly attended Ben's party and that she and Paxton kissed. Nalini, enraged, yells at Paxton for "ruining" Devi's life. Devi's uncle reveals that Nalini is planning on moving them both to India. Devi gets in a fight with Nalini, and refuses to move.
10	"... said I'm sorry"	Tristram Shapeero	Lang Fisher	April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)
Paxton avoids Devi following the incident with Nalini. Devi moves in with Ben so that she cannot be moved to India. Nalini visits her on Mohan's birthday and asks her to spread her father's ashes with her, but she refuses. To convince Devi to spread the ashes with Nalini, Ben enlists the help of Fabiola and Eleanor, who reconcile their friendship. They encourage Devi to go, so Ben takes her to Malibu. Devi, Nalini and Kamala spread Mohan's ashes and she agrees to move back in with them. Returning to Ben's car, the pair kiss. Meanwhile, Paxton, at his sister's urging to reconcile with Devi, leaves her a message while waiting at her front door.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 98% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 7.87/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Never Have I Ever's fresh take on the coming-of-age comedy is hilariously honest, sweetly smart, and likely to have viewers falling head over heels for charming newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 18 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

External links

• Never Have I Ever on Netflix
• Never Have I Ever at IMDb