Maitreyi Ramakrishnan has been a rising star since she landed a number one position in Hollywood at age 19, and he or she is grateful for her mother or father’s assist by all of it.
The Tamil-Canadian actress was raised in a tight-knit household simply exterior of Toronto by her father, Ram Selvarajah, a system analyst for the Ontario Authorities, and her mom, Kiruthiha Kulendiren.
From the second Ramakrishnan realized she had landed the lead role of Devi in Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, her first performing job in Hollywood, her mother and father have been unwavering of their assist. Since then, she has voiced characters in Turning Red and My Little Pony. In June 2024, it was introduced that she could be becoming a member of the forged of Freaky Friday 2.
“… A giant motive why individuals inform me in interviews, ‘You’re so smart past your years,’ or ‘You’re so grounded,’ or ‘You’ve received an incredible head in your shoulders,’ a giant a part of that’s my household,” Ramakrishnan advised Teen Vogue in August 2021. “I couldn’t do that in addition to I’m with out my fam.”
From escaping the civil battle in Sri Lanka to supporting their daughter’s profession, right here’s every thing to learn about Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s mother and father, Ram Selvarajah and Kiruthiha Kulendiren.
They share two youngsters
Earlier than their daughter was born in December 2001, Selvarajah and Kulendiren had welcomed a son, Vishwaa Ramakrishnan. They raised their kids simply exterior of Toronto, in Mississauga, Ontario.
Vishwaa attended McGill University and, in accordance with his Instagram, later acquired a grasp of science in empires, colonialism and globalization from the London Faculty of Economics and Political Science in 2023.
In August 2022, on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, the actress joked that as a youthful sibling, she used to “make all of my brother’s birthday events about me.”
They immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka
Selvarajah and Kulendiren escaped the civil battle in Sri Lanka (which was fought from 1983 to 2009) and relocated to Canada as refugees within the late Nineteen Eighties.
“We’re displaced not by selection however by circumstances,” Kulendiren advised Now Toronto in August 2019.
Ramakrishnan is grateful for studying her household’s historical past.
“It’s simply that appreciation for my household and for who they’re as people coming right here to Canada,” she told the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. “And it, in fact, makes me much more grateful for the soil that I stroll on to reside the life and be capable to do what I do once more, you realize.”
Selvarajah and Kulendiren introduced their kids to a protest on the Gardiner Expressway once they had been younger youngsters, which happened to lift consciousness in regards to the battle crimes occurring again residence.
“We consciously raised them in order that our tales wouldn’t outline them,” Kulendiren advised Now Toronto.
Going to protests together with her mother as a child gave her an understanding of social justice and instilled in her a necessity to talk out in opposition to injustices, she advised the Georgetown Institute for Ladies, Peace and Safety.
“By the point I used to be in, like center college and highschool, like that was no stranger to me,” she stated. “Doing a walkout – that wasn’t something new that felt out of the abnormal. It simply felt like the appropriate factor to do.”
They raised Ramakrishnan in a multigenerational residence
Like her Never Have I Ever character, Ramakrishnan grew up in a multi-generational residence that included her mother, dad, brother, grandmother, grandfather and great-grandmother.
“Household discussions in my home are like ping pong matches,” Ramakrishnan told The New York Times in June 2023. She continued to elucidate that she received her “overdramatic self” from her grandmother.
In August 2022, she revealed on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon that she used to steal her mom’s garments as a child.
She additionally advised SELF in October 2020 that “my mother and my grandma actually drive into each me and my brother that we handle our physique and handle our pores and skin.”
“Each time I don’t, [my mom] at all times looms it over me, like, ‘I’ve taken care of your pores and skin for thus lengthy while you had been a toddler. Your pores and skin was excellent, and now you’re simply going to throw it away!’ And I’m like, Ah, okay! Alright! I’ll repair it! My unhealthy! Positively owe it to my mother to make it possible for I keep on high of my well being,” she advised SELF.
In September 2021, Ramakrishnan advised PEOPLE that she felt lucky to have a family full of cooks — together with a mother who makes “actually good stir-frys,” a culinarily inclined brother and a grandma who “cooks a whole lot of rice and curry.”
Ramakrishnan’s father accompanied her to her first audition
Ramakrishnan’s family and friends “flipped out” with pleasure when she received a callback e mail for By no means Have I Ever that learn: “Are you able to come to L.A.?”
Nonetheless, in accordance with Now Toronto, her father was initially involved in regards to the legitimacy of the casting e mail as a result of it got here from a generic deal with somewhat than a studio account.
After confirming its authenticity, they needed to discover an agent and coordinate journey plans, determining which mother or father may take time without work on quick discover to accompany their daughter to L.A. It wound up being her father, who joined his daughter on what could be each of their first journeys to Hollywood.
When Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher known as Ramakrishnan in Might 2019 to congratulate her on the main position, she remembers her mother and father screaming within the background.
“It was a complete occasion,” she advised Now Toronto in August 2019.
They work full-time jobs whereas supporting Ramakrishnan’s profession
In June 2023, Ramakrishnan advised PEOPLE that she is the “daughter of a workaholic.”
In accordance with his LinkedIn, Selvarajah has labored for the Authorities of Ontario for over 16 years and is at present a system analyst. In the meantime, in accordance with her LinkedIn, Kulendiren is a employees consultant on the Canadian Workplace and Skilled Staff Union in Ontario.
Throughout filming, Ramakrishnan’s mother’s boss allowed her to do business from home in L.A. Midway by filming, she switched out together with her husband.
“It positively made me really feel slightly little bit of strain, but in addition probably not as a result of I knew indisputably my mother and father had been gonna do this for me. That wasn’t even a query,” she advised the Los Angeles Times in June 2023. “It was strain within the sense of, ‘OK, you’re doing every thing for me. I’ve no motive to not be on my ‘A’ sport.’ ”
In June 2023, she shared throughout a panel at The 92nd Street Y that she felt lucky to have a mom and father who drove her to set every single day, and who usually stayed there together with her whereas working full-time jobs.
“They had been at all times supportive, by no means complained,” she shared.
Ramakrishnan was residing at residence when the present was launched in the course of the pandemic, and her household traveled together with her to New York to do promo for season 2.
“Over these 4 years, I’ve realized how completely privileged I’m to have the mother and father that I do,” Ramakrishnan stated on the panel.
They empower Ramakrishnan to talk up
In February 2024, Ramakrishnan advised The 92nd Road Y that her mom and father’s greatest concern whereas watching “horny dream sequences with Paxton” being filmed is at all times her consolation.
“Their precedence is, ‘Do you want what you’re sporting? Do you are feeling snug doing what you’re doing on this scene? And are you okay with what you’re saying?” Sure? Nice.’ After which if I am not snug, my mother and father at all times empower me to talk up,” Ramakrishnan stated, including, “I’ve to only shout out my mother and father for that.”
When the gang began clapping, she inspired them to “give it up for my mother and father,” including that they’re “fairly cool.”
Along with her performing roles, this lesson carries over into her ardour for combating meals insecurity. In September 2021, whereas talking about her partnership with MadeGood for the corporate’s Un-Wreck the Future marketing campaign, Ramakrishnan advised PEOPLE that she was raised to “communicate up for what I imagine in.”
“With regards to meals insecurity, ever since I used to be a child my mother would at all times inform me, ‘Be sure to eat every thing as a result of there’s youngsters on the market that do not get meals,” she stated. “It’s true and it’s one thing that has translated into who I’m now as a result of I am all about ensuring there isn’t any meals waste and getting individuals meals.”
Ramakrishnan considered them whereas filming one among By no means Have I Ever’s remaining scenes
In one of many remaining scenes of By no means Have I Ever, Ramakrishnan’s character, Devi, is seen on the altar praying and expressing gratitude for her life.
“Thanks, I really feel actually grateful. I’ve this superior life filled with dope individuals who care about me and who love me,” her character says.
Ramakrishnan advised the Los Angeles Instances in 2023 that she was pondering of her household whereas filming this scene.
“In that scene, after I was performing that out, it was very simple as a result of I used to be simply eager about the gratitude that I’ve for the present, the chance, for the crew members which have labored on the present and have taught me so many issues, for Mindy, for the followers, for my household,” she advised the Los Angeles Instances.
“My mother and my dad drove me to work each single day [for] Season 1, 2 and three. And by no means as soon as did they complain to me. By no means as soon as. So, it was really easy to behave out that scene. It was necessary to me to hit it precisely proper to indicate overwhelming gratitude — that was the emotion I wished to painting,” she added.