The star of Mindy Kaling's new Netflix teen drama had to Google John McEnroe before filming with him

• Warning: This story contains minor spoilers for the finale of "Never Have I Ever."
• Netflix's newest hit teen show has been hailed for its fresh and inclusive take on the genre, touching on some serious themes of grief and cultural identity.
• Created by Mindy Kaling and starring first-time actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as the lead Devi, the show follows the girl's ordeals as she learns to manage her temper and get to grips with the loss of her father while dealing with a strict Hindu mom and teenage drama.
• The series is narrated by tennis star John McEnroe, who also makes a brief cameo in the season finale.
• Before filming the scene, Ramakrishnan, 18, admitted to USA Today that she had to Google who McEnroe was.
• Kaling tried to get McEnroe on board before she even had a script and his kids had to vouch for her good pedigree.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix's new dramedy "Never Have I Ever" is being hailed as one of the best teen-shows the streaming service has put out since "Sex Education."

Created by Mindy Kaling, the series follows 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in her first acting role), a new species of nerd who isn't afraid to go for the school's hottie, talk back to teachers, and steal alcohol to get her classmates drunk on a model UN trip.

Underneath Devi's rebellious façade is a girl struggling to deal with the sudden loss of her father, who was the buffer between her and her equally assertive mom (Poorna Jagannathan), a devout Hindu with a tough-love approach to parenting.

To balance out these heavier tones, the show brought in tennis superstar John McEnroe to narrate all but one episode of the series with a dry sense of humor, giving a voice to Devi's inner thoughts and delusions as she lies to her best friends Eleanor (Ramona Young) and Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) about losing her virginity to senior heartthrob Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet).

"Devi wasn't lost, she was a frigging sexual conquistador who had just snagged her first kiss from a teenage Adonis," is the kind of line we hear come out of McEnroe's mouth, as is: "Devi strode off, confident her friends would believe this b------t story."

His presence might seem as utterly random to the younger generations as it was for the show's star Ramakrishnan, who herself admits having to look up who McEnroe was before filming his cameo in the season's finale.

"I definitely had to Google him up before that episode," she told USA Today.

"When I read the script for the first episode, me and a couple castmates had to figure out, 'Who is this narrator?' But it was really interesting to film with him. We casually talked to him. He seemed pretty chill."

Kaling explained how McEnroe kept coming up during the series development as a mirror version of Devi's own hothead personality.

"You know, someone who's high-achieving but is undermined by their own temper," Kaling told USA Today.

"He has really high standards for himself and everyone around him. We kept talking about him and were like, 'Wait,
should he be doing the narration?'"

Kaling first approached McEnroe before she even had a script for the show while in New York for last year's Met Gala. Explaining her vision over coffee, she recalled how he and his wife, singer Patty Smyth "were into it" and how their kids, who knew Kaling from "The Office," vouched for her good pedigree.

His cameo in the show's finale also came about in quite an odd way. "He was actually in Malibu with his wife and we were like, 'Hey, do you want to come do this?' And he was like, 'Yeah, no problem,'" Kaling said. "He just showed up in a wet suit and it was awesome.

"We shot 15 minutes away from his house, so it was easy."

In the scene, he bumps into Devi on the beach as she is trying to get her mother's attention before she scatters her dad's ashes without her. After a quick fangirling moment on behalf of her late father and a deadpan reply from McEnroe ("Yeah, a lot of my fans are now," dead that is) he helps Devi out and saves the day.

McEnroe told Entertainment Weekly he is happy the show is receiving positive feedback from all different ages, and all different walks of life, from "younger people and kids up to old farts like myself."

Although he hasn't watched the show himself ("I can't bear to watch myself or even listen to myself"), he is proud of his performance: "At times, I don't get this acting thing.

"It's not like sports where you get that immediate gratification — you win, you lose. There's so many other people involved and you don't know exactly how it's all going to play out. So when it does actually work, it feels good. It makes you want to do it again," said McEnroe.

Currently, there has been no word from Netflix on whether "Never Have I Ever" will be renewed for a second season, though the show only premiered on the platform on April 27.

Read more:

The 101 best TV shows to watch on Netflix right now

The best Jake Gyllenhaal movies to watch on Netflix, ranked

Netflix's Korean high school drama 'Love Alarm' imagines the dystopian future of dating apps

Read the original article on Insider