Here's your first look at Mindy Kaling's new series, and its Canadian teen star

If you’ve ever wondered what Mindy Kaling was like as a teenager and you haven’t gotten your hands on either of her biographies yet, the first look at Never Have I Ever will definitely help paint an image. And that’s largely thanks to Canada’s own 17-year-old Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who makes her acting debut in the new series.“Hey gods, it’s Devi Vishwakumar, your favourite Hindu girl in the San Fernando Valley,” the preview opens as Ramakrishnan sits in front of her gods, giving off total Judy Blume vibes. “What’s popping? It’s the first day of school and I thought we should have a check in. I think we can all agree that last year sucked for a number of reasons. So I thought of a few ways you guys can make it up to me.”

What’s popping’ everybody? https://t.co/aoF1QG3OKo

— Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (@ramakrishnannn) March 19, 2020

Naturally those ways include being invited to a party where there’s drugs and alcohol (“I’d just like the opportunity to say, ‘No cocaine for me thanks, I’m good’”); thinner arm hair (“my arms look like the floor of a freaking barber shop”); and an athletic boyfriend (“a stone-cold hottie”). Now does that sound like a teenaged Mindy Kaling or does that sound like a teenaged Mindy Kaling?[video_embed id='1896033']RELATED: Mindy Kaling gushes about Canadian stylist Jessica Mulroney[/video_embed]Of course that’s exactly what the former The Office and The Mindy Project star is going for. She created the series (alongside her Mindy Project co-worker Lang Fisher) based on her own experiences growing up as an Indian-American teen with immigrant parents. This show is a “coming-of-age comedy” that’s supposed to showcase exactly that. And while the jury’s still out on whether Kaling used phrases like “stone-cold hottie” growing up, it’s definitely in line with her brand of comedy now.More importantly, the preview is the first chance for fans to see why Kaling was so excited to cast Ramakrishnan in the role. The Mississauga, Ont. native beat out more than 15,000 others in an open audition in April 2019 for the gig. Who knew that a year later she’d be on a much-needed comedy that drops on April 27, aka during a time when everyone just so happens to be looking for something new to watch?

Remember that open casting call for me and @loulielang’s upcoming @netflix series!? WELL everyone…meet Maitreyi Ramakrishnan! She was cast out of 15,000 people, you guys ??? Thank you to every single one of you that auditioned ❤️ https://t.co/9mbbhnKJNN

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) July 10, 2019

Since The Mindy Project ended in 2017, Kaling has been plenty busy behind the scenes, becoming one of the most successful writers and producers in Hollywood. She wrote and co-starred in the Emma Thompson-led movie Late Night, and she also produced NBC sitcom Champions, Hulu’s TV version of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the upcoming HBO Max series College Girls. And all this while settling into the motherhood life following a secret pregnancy. (Her daughter, Katherine, is two years old.)“[I like] gentle subversions. I have never seen a movie where a British-Pakistani man and an African-American man are best friends at work, and they work in finance,” Kaling said last summer at the Television Critics Association Press Tour while promoting Four Weddings and a Funeral. “That is a thing you see all the time and it’s a certain type of Wolf of Wall Street type of situation. [Those scenes are] so enjoyable and you think, why haven’t we seen this before? And the fact that the characters do not seem to have these racial boundaries that I think we often see as show creators in other shows, was really refreshing. I wanna keep doing that. I really love that.”Kaling's numerous fans are likely all-in on her doing that too.[video_embed id='-1']Before you go: Watch this dog and cat bond over their favorite toy[/video_embed]