With Not Suitable for Work, the actor takes on her first leading TV role—and her biggest opportunity yet.

PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOTO
STYLED BY CALVY CLICK
Growing up in the Bay Area, Avantika Vandanapu—known mononymously as Avantika—studied drama and trained in dance, a skill she most recently put to use in Prime Video’s ballerina thriller&nbsp;Pretty Lethal. But long before sharing the screen with Uma Thurman, the Telugu actor, 21, had already built a career in Indian cinema. She made the jump to American film in 2021 and has since appeared in Spin, Senior Year, and Mean Girls. But joining Mindy Kaling’s new Hulu sitcom Not Suitable for Work is her biggest breakthrough. “This is my first lead role on TV, so I really had to pull my weight,” she says. “The first few days on set were very daunting, because even though it’s a funny and silly role, it’s a big deal.”
Shot everywhere from Hudson Yards to Katz’s Delicatessen, the series follows a group of twentysomethings navigating life in New York’s Murray Hill (the show was originally named after the neighborhood). “We hope these people feel like your friends—and almost like support systems through hard times—in the same way as&nbsp;New Girl and Friends and Girls,” says Vandanapu. When she’s not causing chaos with her roommate, played by Ella Hunt, or sparring with their neighbors portrayed by Will Angus, Nicholas Duvernay, and Jack Martin, her character, Abby, works as the assistant to a celebrity stylist played by Constance Wu. 
“Abby’s world is very fabulous,” she says. “But so much of life in the city—especially as a young person—is hustle culture. There are many opportunities for love and romance, but there’s also this feeling that you have to compromise or sacrifice those things in order to advance your career.” That tension, Vandanapu adds, is what drew her to the role. “Shows don’t necessarily focus on that, because it’s not the most salacious part of young adulthood. Navigating the push and pull of work-life balance is not inherently very sexy. But I find it exciting.”

Avantika Vandanapu. L'Officiel July/August Issue.

Having been on sets for a decade, she didn’t have to do much research for the part. “I’ve worked with a lot of stylist assistants in the past, so I’m very familiar with everything from hauling four Hulken bags on the subway to last-minute alterations or some really obscure celebrity requests.” Although Wu orders her around onscreen, the pair quickly hit it off. “It helps when the actor who’s playing your mean, bitchy boss is actually very nice,” Vandanapu laughs. “As an actor, our worst nightmare is when a costar who’s playing a terrifying character says, I’m going method.
Working with Kaling proved just as easy. “Mindy comes at the process from such a collaborative place,” she says. “She’s one of the most curious people I’ve worked with, asking so many questions. I think that’s a real sign of humility, but also excitement to work with young people and see what they bring to the table.&nbsp;

Living with what she calls “radical optimism,” Vandanapuhas established a strong Young Hollywood network of her own. “I have not worked with a single person who I don’t like,” she says. “I used to dream of days like this. When you don’t see yourself represented onscreen and you’re entering the industry so young, you feel like you’re never going to find community or make friends.” Vandanapu is especially aware of the unique position she occupies—one that bridges both Indian and American audiences, each with “very different expectations of what a public figure or leading woman looks like”—and she embraces that duality.&nbsp;
“I think most young women who come from a very rich culture and then move somewhere like America are told that there are very clear parameters for what they can and can’t be,” she says. “I hope that, through the characters that I play, young Indian girls see a real and emboldening representation of women who go beyond that. Because I feel, myself, that I’m one of those people.”

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Avantika on Navigating Hustle Culture, Finding Community, and Choosing Radical Optimism

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