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Richa Shukla Moorjani
Richa Shukla Moorjani
Born	Richa Shukla
Nationality	American
Education	University of California, Davis
Occupations	Actress; dancer;
Years active	2011–present
Known for	Never Have I Ever
Spouse	Bharat Rishi Moorjani (m. 2019)

Richa Moorjani is an American actress who is best known for her role as Kamala in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever and as Indira Olmstead in the fifth season of American crime drama Fargo.

Early life and family

Moorjani was born and raised in an Indian Sindhi Hindu family settled in the United States. She attended Saratoga High School (California) and the University of California, Davis, where she majored in communications. She graduated in 2011.^[1]

For over 25 years, Moorjani has been a student of Srimati Anuradha Nag (Tarangini School of Kathak Dance) and has been trained in various styles of western and Indian dance. She told The Hindu, "I will dance until I cannot. Basically, until I die!"^[2]

Moorjani's family managed a Bollywood music band.^[3]

Career

Moorjani's early years as an actress saw her playing guest roles in several television shows including The Mindy Project (directed by Mindy Kaling), NCIS: Los Angeles and 9-1-1. She also voice-acted in Fallout 76, a 2018 online action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks.

Between 2020 and 2023, Moorjani portrayed one of the lead characters in Netflix original series Never Have I Ever, which was also co-written by Kaling. She auditioned for Never Have I Ever through an open casting call.^[4] Richa plays main character Devi's cousin, Kamala Nandiawadal, in the series. As of 2020^[update], Kamala is a PhD student in biology at Caltech.^[5] Speaking on playing a woman of color in STEM, she tells The Hindu, "I learned about how much women of color in STEM go through. It's a real systemic problem where their names are taken off research papers. Granted we see what Kamala goes through in the lab via a comedic lens, but I was keen to show this storyline".^[6]

As of late-2021, Moorjani's next project Broken Drawer, directed by Rippin Sindher, has been in post-production. The film is loosely inspired by true events, following a young Sikh mother who was killed while working at her family-owned convenience store in rural California. "Rippin called me and told me how special this role was to her, being based on her mother, and that she couldn't see anyone playing it but me. It turned out to be such a lovely and fulfilling experience," Moorjani told The Hindu.^[6]

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2011	Love Fool	Sheela	Short
2015	For Here or to Go?	Journalist at Speed Date
2015	X: Past Is Present	Sanjana
2019	Wolf	Arti	Short
2020	Invisible Brown Man	Seema Desai	Short

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Mark at the Movies	Party girl	One episode on 28 May 2011
2012	Big Time Rush	Palmwoods Girl #2	Episode: "Big Time Surprise"
2012	The Mindy Project	Geeta	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
2013	Sullivan & Son	Girl #1	Episode: "Ladies Night"
2016	The New Yorker: Shorts & Murmurs		Episode: "What I Imagine My Boyfriend's Ex-Girlfriends Are Doing Right Now"
2017	NCIS: Los Angeles	Rayna	Episode: "Unleashed"
2018	9-1-1	Jenna	Episode: "Merry X-mas"
2020–2023	Never Have I Ever	Kamala Nandiwadal	Main role; 34 episodes
2021	Home Economics		Episode: "Bottle Service, $800 Plus Tip (25% Suggested)"
2021	Immoral Compass	Molly	Episode: "Part 8: Nostalgia"
2022	True Story	Fenal	Episode: "Abishek's Story"
2023–2024	Fargo	Indira Olmstead	Season 5, main role^[7]