Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was born in Mississauga, Ontario to Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu refugees Ram Selvarajah and Kiruthiha Kulendiren. She attended Lisgar Middle School, followed by Meadowvale Secondary School.
During her last year at Meadowvale Secondary School, Maitreyi decided to pursue a career in acting. Less than a year later, she got the lead role in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever (2020) as Devi Vishwakumar. She deferred her acceptance to York University's theatre program to film the series and later deferred it again while also switching her degree to human rights and equity studies.
Since her initial debut, she has voiced main roles in Turning Red (2022) as Priya Mangal, and the children’s television show My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale (2022-present), as well as the spin-off specials as Zipp Storm.
Maitreyi has been nominated and honored in many categories for her work, including the Radius Award at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, a nomination for the 2021 Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Performance in a New Scripted Series for Never Have I Ever, and most recently, she was nominated for the 2022 People's Choice Awards in two categories — Female TV Star of 2022, and Comedy TV Star of 2022.