Never Have I Ever cast ages: how old are actors in Netflix high school series compared to their characters?

The gap in ages between the main cast of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever and their characters is pretty big - none of the main stars who play teenagers in the series are teens themselves. They all have several years on their characters and one actor is more than a decade older than the role they play.

There’s a reason for this age gap - most actors under the age of 18 will be limited in the amount of filming they can do each week because of labour laws and the fact that they are likely to be in full time education.

On top of this, younger actors will naturally be less experienced and big budget shows will be looking for stars who already have a few screen credits under their belt.

But this doesn’t stop that uncanny feeling when audiences watch grown adult men and women who are old enough to be married and have school aged children of their own pretending to be 17 year old students.

The first season of Never Have I Ever landed on Netflix in April 2020, whilst season four, which takes place two years later, comes to the site today (8 June) more than three years later, making the new age gap between cast and characters even bigger.

How old are the cast of Never Have I Ever?

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan plays Devi Vishwakumar - Devi began in the first series as a 15 year old in her second year at an American high school. By season four she is now in her senior year and is 17. Ramakrishnan is 21, so there’s an age gap of four years which in TV world isn’t that incredible.

Jaren Lewison plays Ben Gross, a former academic nemesis of Devi’s, although the pair have since grown close. Ben is in the same year as Devi so is also around 17 years old, whilst Lewison is 22, making for a five year age difference.

Darren Barnet stars plays Paxton Hall-Yoshida in the series - the character was in the year above Devi and graduated from Sherman Oaks High in the previous season, making him 18 in series four. However, Barnett is much older than his onscreen role. At 32 years old, the disparity between the actor and his character is a whopping 14 years.

Ramona Young plays Eleanor Wong, Devi’s classmate and best friend. Eleanor should also be 17 but Young, ironically, is actually 25, the oldest of the three main actresses of the show and eight years older than her character.

Lee Rodriguez plays Fabiola Torres - Fabiola is another of Devi’s best friends and is also 17, whilst Rodriguez is 23, leaving a six year age gap.

Megan Suri plays Aneesa Qureshi, the character was a new girl at the school in the second season but was in the same year as Devi and her pals, making her around 17 as of season four. Suri, on the other hand, is 24, leaving another substantial disparity of seven years. 

Victoria Moroles plays Margot, an aspiring artist and Devi’s friend who is also a student at Sherman Oaks. Margot is also roughly 17 years old, whilst Moroles is 26 - leaving a hefty nine year age difference.

Michael Cimino plays Ethan, a skater and student introduced in the fourth season who is also expected to be around 17 years old. Cimino is one of the youngest actors on the series, but at 23 he is still six years older than his character.  

The maths shows that these stars have a cumulative age gap of 59 years on the characters they play - that’s three and a half high school seniors. The average age difference between actor and character works out at more than seven years.