“Yo, yo, yo, my gods, it’s Devi Vishwakumar — your dopest disciple in the 91403,” Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) prays to an altar of Hindu gods in the first episode of the fourth season of Never Have I Ever.
“Oh, good lord, it’s a prayer, Devi, not DJ Khaled intro’ing a new song,” her mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) quickly interjects.
Never Have I Ever, the teen comedy show about an Indian American Tamil teenager living in California whose father suddenly dies and then must navigate high school, boys, her mother, and her cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani) coming to live with them from India, has come to a close. Throughout the series, we’ve seen the characters change — usually for the better, sometimes falling back on bad habits. The very first episode of Season 1 also opened with Devi asking the gods for things — but, back then, she was more concerned with cool party invites, less arm hair, and, “most importantly,” a boyfriend who was a “stone cold hottie.”
When the show released over three years ago, we interviewed leads Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Richa Moorjani to chat about how showrunners Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher had created a space for strong, messy, horny, and complex South Asian women. We came back to talk to the cast, including Poorna Jagannathan, about how Devi, Kamala, and Nalini have evolved; the most meaningful moments in this latest and final season; what they took home with them (literally, from the sets); and what’s next.