Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, star of ‘Never Have I Ever,’ on representation, being a gaming superfan and not watching ‘Succession’

“Fail along the way to find your way” — that’s the Gen Z take on “live, laugh, love” that Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is currently workshopping.

“It’s a metaphor for life!” says the actor, 21, laughing. “Put it on a Pinterest board — it’d be on all the HomeSense decor.”

Ramakrishnan’s tongue-in-cheek motto is inspired by the video games she grew up playing alongside her brother in Mississauga, where you succeed only after first failing a level a hundred times. “Video games definitely influenced me, that creativity of making new worlds,” says Ramakrishnan, a gaming superfan, and new Nintendo ambassador for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. (At the midnight launch, she rang through the ceremonial first copy at a Toronto video game store.)

The ability to make new worlds is a handy skill when you grow up to be one of the most promising actors of your generation, plucked out of suburban Canadian obscurity by Mindy Kaling to play the title character in the Netflix dramedy, “Never Have I Ever.” The show broke representational ground by centring the experiences of young adults from diverse backgrounds, including Ramakrishnan’s Devi, a Brown girl with immigrant parents navigating grief along with a raging crush on the captain of the swim team. The final of its four seasons premieres on June 8.

“People tell me what the show means to them, and how the show has made them feel seen,” says Ramakrishnan, who also did voice work in Domee Shi’s trail-blazing 2022 hit “Turning Red.” “It adds a bit of pressure on studios to seek real representation, and real specificity when coming up with narratives.”

As hyped as she is about the new season, Ramakrishnan says it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to characters she’s come to love. Burrowing into gaming offers a way to do something that’s just for her, and to not think about her career. “I never want to be that person who’s always all-consumed with TV and film. It’s a hard line to walk when you need that separation of performer and audience.” In fact, that’s her plan for this weekend: “I have no plans, except to be a potato and play video games.”

Here’s what else is on Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s culture calendar.

Best book she’s read lately: “The Ivory Key” by Akshaya Raman

“It’s written by a Tamil author who is awesome. It’s a fantasy book that’s super dope. It’s based around four South Asian siblings. It’s lovely to read South Asian characters in these fantasy worlds that I would have dreamed of being in when I was a kid when I couldn’t read things that had people who looked like me in it.”

Songs on repeat: “Realer” by Megan Thee Stallion and “New Romantics” by Taylor Swift

“They’re two opposite ends of the spectrum. Two very different vibes, but they very much still pump you up.”

Movie on the brain: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”

“The last movie I actually saw in theatres was The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It was kind of great.”

Can’t-miss TV show: “The Devil Is A Part-Timer!”

“Honestly, I just watch a lot of anime. I’d love to tell you something like ‘Succession,’ but alas, I have no idea what ‘Succession’ is about. I grew up on anime because I didn’t have the Disney channel, but I did have a laptop. ‘The Devil Is A Part-Timer!’, which is comedy, is really, really cool.”

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