The end of Never Have I Ever is sadly upon us, after three seasons of watching our favorite messy lead Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) navigate through the highs and lows of family, love, loss, and high school. To celebrate the fourth and final season — and Devi’s senior year — Netflix and Teen Vogue teamed up for the “Never Have I Ever Had An Inspiration Like You” reception at Baar Baar in New York. Hosted by Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Versha Sharma, the event celebrated Ramakrishnan and her castmates Poorna Jagannathan and Richa Moorjani, who play Devi’s mom Nalini and her cousin Kamala.
The landmark achievement of this show for mainstream South Asian representation was front and center at the June 6 event, as the room was filled with actors, writers, creatives, fashion and beauty entrepreneurs, community leaders and more, all from the South Asian community.
“We have been in gated rooms together, we’ve been rejected our entire career, and we have to have been the ones trying to keep that flame alive for us and for each other for so long,” Jagannathan says. “We are suddenly being celebrated, made visible, and recognized. When we’re together I realize how much power this community has.”
The evening kicked off with Sharma introducing the leading ladies of NHIE. She went on to share her journey being the first South Asian editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue and getting to advocate for Ramakrishnan to be on her very first cover. Sharma went on to talk about how important South Asian representation is to her, even noting how exciting it’ll be down the line to show her baby daughter, Devi, a hit-series that was on Netflix where the lead has her name. “I have been lucky enough to get to know this cast over the past few years and I’m so happy to celebrate them tonight,” Sharma said. “For four seasons, they have portrayed a multi-generational South Asian family in a way that is both highly specific and highly relatable. We’ve never been seen quite like this.”
Reflecting on her journey and the show’s trajectory over the past few years, Ramakrishnan on Tuesday night stressed the importance of community and continuing to show up for each other, in every industry.
“It's a realization of the fact that we need more representation," Ramakrishnan said in our 2021 cover story, written by Aamina Khan. "We need more stories, we need more storytellers. We can't just keep relying on Mindy Kaling to keep making all these shows. I want her to keep making more. But I need more people with her.”
Never Have I Ever sits as a shining corner celebrating Indian American culture loudly for all it is, while also giving space for a character, like Devi, to be multi-dimensional and wonderfully flawed. Devi as a leading woman gets to be beautiful, chaotic, complicated and so much more. And the show has served as a constant reminder that the world needs more like it.
Notable attendees included Padma Lakshmi, Sarita Choudhury, Kal Penn, Aasif Mandvi, Alok Vaid-Menon, Melanie Chandra, Conde Nast Entertainment President Agnes Chu, and more. Throughout the night, guests experienced Baar Baar’s contemporary Indian cuisine alongside NHIE namesake mocktails and cocktails, connecting us not only to the show but to South Asian culture.
“It is really important to show up and look out for one another,” Ramakrishnan says. “By coming here [to this event], by showing people that there is a community. I can’t stress this enough. You have to show up for your community, that’s the only way we’re going to get progress in any industry.”
Never Have I Ever is a coming-of-age comedy about the complicated life of a modern-day first-generation Indian American teenage girl, something Sharma closely connects to. The series stars Ramakrishnan as Devi, an overachieving high school student who has a short fuse that gets her into difficult situations. Never Have I Ever is created by executive producers, Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, with Fisher serving as the showrunner. As we reach the series’ end, attendees spent the night laughing, celebrating and relishing in the impact this show has had on South Asian representation in television. The final season of Never Have I Ever releases Thursday, June 8th only on Netflix.
