The modern brown woman experience in America: Richa Moorjani and Poorna Jagannathan on Netflix’s ‘Never Have I Ever’ season two

Never Have I Ever, as a show, has deeply divided South Asian audiences in its portrayal of an Indian transplant family in California, with the kids striving for western modernity and the elders clutching tightly on to traditions. Moorjani, 32, recalls being nervous about how the virtual reads would “kill the creative process and wouldn’t be that funny”, but then she realised it is “still performance” and everyone adapted seamlessly. “I trusted Salvador’s vision and wore anything he put me in,” she says, “When she wears a black leather jacket and goes to put her name on a research paper, as the actor I felt more empowered!” Speaking of labs and commitments, the actor duo is proud to portray strong women in STEM. It’s a real systemic problem where their names are taken off research papers,” explains Moorjani, “Granted we see what Kamala goes through in the lab via a comedic lens, but I was keen to show this storyline.” Jagannathan also refers to the 2019 feature film, Late Night, in which Kaling’s character stays in the writer’s room for hours on end and is dismissed constantly. “To depict a South Asian woman who holds on dearly to her values while being a woman of the modern world, opening her heart to a new man, holds a progressive message,” says Moorjani, also known for her passionate pursuits of veganism, clean beauty and anti-animal cruelty laws.