Mindy Kaling’s new Netflix comedy, Never Have I Ever, is set to be one of the buzziest comedies of the year, not least because it’s rumored to be about Kaling herself! Although the show tells a fictional story with fictional characters, Kaling has been very open about the fact that the show and its characters are inspired by her own early life as an Indian-American girl growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here’s how much of Kaling’s real life we can expect to see in the show.
At the heart of Never Have I Ever is Kaling’s desire to tell a story about the kinds of characters she would have related to when she was a teenager, but that don’t get portrayed very often. “Nerds are not only the wallflowers and the quiet ones,” Kaling said at a Variety event. “We’re ambitious, we have obnoxious personalities sometimes, we want to have sex and dreams like all the other kids.” It’s an experience, she explained, that she could relate to closely, which made the creative process even more special and personal. “I felt lucky to be able to do a show about an Indian nerd who’s also badly behaved, to show that because I’m deeply familiar with it.”
The show focuses on Devi, a first-generation Indian-American teenage girl who is an overachieving, whip-smart high school sophomore who also happens to have a short temper that tends to get her into sticky situations. Canadian newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan snagged the role from over 15,000 applicants who auditioned after Kaling posted an open casting call online. In the first trailer, Devi prays for the chance to go to a party with alcohol and drugs (so she can turn them down, of course), for a hot non-nerd boyfriend, and for a better handle on body hair.
Never Have I Ever debuts its first season on Apr. 27 on Netflix, and we know it’ll make us laugh and think in the best way!