Maitreyi Ramakrishnan chats with Jay Shetty about her acting journey. Breaking through the film industry requires a lot of hard work and a lot of people don’t actually take into consideration the amount of work she has put in to continuously play the title role. Add in a good amount of luck and her will to stand for herself and never shy away from asking questions. Maitreyi is best known for portraying Devi Vishwakumar, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, in Netflix's hit series, Never Have I Ever. She created her audition tape at a local library, using her mother's camera, eventually being asked to send four more videos, before having a screen test in Los Angeles and being offered the role. Maitreyi is very vocal about diversity and standing up for yourself. Achieve success in every area of your life with Jay Shetty’s Genius Community. Join over 10,000 members taking their holistic well-being to the next level today, at https://shetty.cc/OnPurposeGenius What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 02:45 Breaking through Hollywood with a South Asian heritage 07:07 Raised to speak up your mind 10:00 “I didn’t like myself.” 14:51 Generational talk divides us 16:53 Having a grandma as your best friend 18:54 When you have family and friends that listen 22:30 The strong passion for acting 25:44 The day she filmed the audition tape 29:48 Always give it your best shot 30:43 The first day and the first scene shoot 34:25 Dealing with impostor syndrome 37:38 Everything happened in different ways for people 41:05 “Respect existence, expect resistance.” 43:42 Not enough representation of true diversity 50:02 The story she stood up for someone 53:14 Maitreyi on Final Five