'Never Have I Ever' Star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan On Finally Seeing Brown Men Portrayed As 'Hot'

Netflix star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan shared why the scene in season three of Never Have I Ever where Devi Vishwakumar Gets called out on "mild racism" for assuming an Indian guy would be nerdy is so important.

*Spoilers ahead*

"That was one of my favourite moments to read in the script because I was like, 'Yes! We are talking about this!'" Ramakrishnan, who plays Devi, told Narcity.

Never Have I Ever is a drama-packed comedy series that follows Indian American teenager Vishwakumar as she navigates high school, boys, and family in the wake of her father's death.

In episode four of season three, Devi's mom lets her go to a party under the condition that she brings her new friend's son Nirdesh or "Des," who just got back from a summer program studying a colony of sea slugs, and apparently has some trouble making friends.

Which, in all fairness, doesn't paint the coolest picture.

Devi begrudgingly agrees to bring him and tells her friends to look out for the "Indian dork" and says that he's her cousin.

Low and behold, Des, played by Anirudh Pisharody, walks in, and he's definitely not nerdy – he's actually super hot!

As most things usually go for Devi, the situation blows up in her face when Des finds out she told people he was her cousin because she thought he was going to be a huge "loser."

Des calls out Devi for thinking that just because he is Indian, and Devi defends herself, saying there were "cultural context clues" and that there are "a lot of nerdy Indian guys."

Ramakrishnan says she related to this scene because of issues her older brother faced growing up as a Brown man.

"I could see him not feeling as handsome as some of his other friends because he was like, 'Oh, I'm not what you see on TV as being the guy that's the hot guy'," said Ramakrishnan.

"It's really awesome to see Brown guys get some love and be put in that handsome light because Brown guys can be very handsome."

Ramakrishnan also said it was nice to see her character get called out a bit and watch how they portrayed a new Brown man on the show.

Season three of the series dropped on August 12, so you can stream all of the drama now!

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.