Mindy Kaling was determined to create a show about teens that showed more well-rounded teen characters, especially ones of the brainy variety, she tells USA Today.
Kaling’s Netflix comedy, Never Have I Ever, features Devi Vishwakumar (played by newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a 15-year-old Indian-American teen, a bookworm who also happens to love chasing boys, talking back to teachers, stealing booze from classmates and generally being a witty, confident teen. Kaling was approached by Netflix to write a semi-autographical series, and she loved the idea of showcasing characters that she believed would be more relatable to teens than classic portrayals of them.
“Devi is decidedly a nerd and so are her friends, but she's not a wallflower. And I think we haven't seen that before,” says Kaling, 40, who based the show in part on her high-school self. That said, “I did not have her confidence in terms of me thinking I should be with the hot senior guy. I had none of that – I was a lot quieter than she is.”
She also created a subplot about how Devi is dealing with her grief at losing her father, a heartbreak she and co-creator Lang Fisher can relate to.
“Lang lost her father and I lost my mother years ago,” Kaling says. “After our parents passed away, we both would have these vivid dreams where they were still alive. And in the dream, you're like, 'Oh, my God, you're alive? I was mistaken this whole time.' I think it's pretty common, but I'd never seen that in a show, so capturing that specific moment was something we both really wanted to do (with Devi).”
She also set out to create accurate portrayal of Indian culture, something she hasn’t previously seen as much as she would like.
“It was really cathartic in the writers' room to have these Indian writers corroborate the stuff that I thought was so weird (growing up),” Kaling says. “We're hoping that in a larger way, Indian kids who watch us will be like, 'Oh, my God, I did that, too. When I was eye-rolling, I was not eye-rolling alone.' So in that way, I felt greedy, because we finally got to do this stuff that we hadn't seen on TV and feel like we were normal.”