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Jay Shetty PodcastJay Shetty Podcast

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan ON: Imposter Syndrome & Navigating Self-Doubt In Any Stage of Your Journey

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…

Maitreyi RamakrishnanguestJay Shettyhost
Dec 13, 202157mWatch on YouTube

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At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan on self-doubt, impostor syndrome, and authentic representation

  1. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan describes self-love and confidence as inconsistent, sharing how she once fixated on negative comments even amid overwhelming positive feedback.
  2. She reflects on disliking herself in high school and explains how after-school theater began as avoidance of being alone before turning into a meaningful path into acting.
  3. She recounts being raised to speak up against injustice and connects that upbringing to how she navigates relationships, listening, and empathy.
  4. She details her unconventional entry into acting through a low-budget audition tape made with her best friend, emphasizing effort over expectations.
  5. She discusses impostor syndrome and representation in Hollywood, criticizing token diversity and arguing for wider, truer on-screen variety for South Asian stories.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Self-confidence can be volatile, and negativity-seeking online can intensify self-doubt.

She describes confidence as something that can swing day-to-day, and says she used to scroll past thousands of positive comments to find a single negative one, which would derail her.

Discomfort with being alone can mask deeper self-dislike, and creative outlets can become a bridge to self-acceptance.

She says she used to hate being alone because she didn’t like herself, and she initially did after-school theater partly to avoid going home and sitting with her thoughts—before realizing it became a genuine passion.

A strong sense of justice—and permission to use your voice—shapes identity and behavior early.

She credits her parents for raising her to speak up about injustice, says she never felt she needed to code-switch, and shares that she was often in the principal’s office for reporting situations she felt were wrong.

Empathy is both a performance tool and a life skill: understanding the ‘why’ changes how you relate.

She frames her acting approach as empathizing with a character’s choices—“being their lawyer”—and connects that to how she tries to listen to people’s perspectives in real life.

Momentum can start from a small ‘yes’—showing up—and doing your best even when you expect nothing.

She says the audition tape happened while she was depressed and nearly chose to nap instead, but went to hang out with her best friend; she treated the tape as low-stakes and focused on doing her best.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

I hated being alone. Like, I hated it. I had... Sitting with my own thoughts. I hated just sitting with myself, having to talk to myself, have to entertain myself- 'cause I didn't like myself for the longest time.

— Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

I was depressed. Um, I was very depressed in my last year of high school, which took a long while for me to come to terms with.

— Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

I would scroll through comments until I found a negative one. Scroll through thousands of positive until I found a negative one, and that would be when I would turn off my phone, which is so unhealthy.

— Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

I mean, we can't all be imposters, right? Like that doesn't make sense.

— Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

It's like, what el- what other choice do we have? Like, it's become this fluff word, but it's such a mandatory fluff word, you know?

— Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Read the available transcript
Self-love fluctuations and comment fixationGrowing up Tamil Canadian and family influenceLearning to be alone and self-acceptanceStarting acting through school theaterAudition tape creation and low-stakes courageFirst-day-on-set lessons and asking questionsImpostor syndrome triggers and ‘luck’ vs hard work framing (and representation vs token diversity)

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SPEAKERS

  • Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

    guest

    Canadian actor best known for starring as Devi Vishwakumar on Netflix’s Never Have I Ever.

  • Jay Shetty

    host

    Host of the On Purpose podcast and author of Think Like a Monk.

High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.

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