The diaspora on your feed: the Indian-origin names to follow right now

Why now

It is not an accident that a list like this can be drawn at all. The last few years have delivered an unprecedented run of diaspora breakthroughs: the Sharma sisters at the centre of Bridgerton, one of the most-watched shows on Netflix; Never Have I Ever, four seasons built around a Tamil-American teenager; Mindy Kaling quietly running a television empire; Vir Das collecting an International Emmy for a Hindi-English stand-up special. What used to be a token role or a novelty act has become a cohort — enough Indian-origin faces, in enough different fields, that "who should I follow?" is a real question with a dozen good answers.

The other half of the story is the platform itself. Lilly Singh and Vidya Vox did not wait for a studio or a label; they built audiences of their own, directly, on YouTube and Instagram, and reached the traditional industry already famous. Jay Shetty and Diipa Büller-Khosla turned followings into businesses. For a diaspora long dependent on gatekeepers who had little idea what to do with it, the direct-to-audience internet has been a great equaliser. You no longer need Hollywood's permission to be seen — you need a phone and a point of view.

On screen

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was a Tamil-Canadian teenager who answered an open casting call and ended up carrying Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever, the Netflix hit that made an ordinary Indian-diaspora girl the main character. She has become one of the most watchable young voices of her generation — @maitreyiramakrishnan.

Simone Ashley turned a supporting turn in Sex Education into the lead of Bridgerton's second season as Kate Sharma, and a place on every best-dressed list since. British-Tamil, and one of the most-followed South Asian actors working — @simoneashley.

Charithra Chandran was her Bridgerton co-star and on-screen sister Edwina, an Oxford graduate turned rising star who has since become a red-carpet and campaign fixture. British-Indian, and one to watch — @charithra17.

In comedy

Hasan Minhaj made political comedy his own with Patriot Act and two landmark Netflix specials built around the specifics of a Muslim Indian-American upbringing — @hasanminhaj.

Lilly Singh, the Punjabi-Canadian who built a global audience as "Superwoman" on YouTube before becoming the first woman of Indian descent to host an American network late-night show, is still one of the diaspora's biggest creators — @lilly.

Vir Das is the global-Indian comedian who took Hindi-English stand-up to the world's stages and won an International Emmy for it — a bridge act the whole diaspora claims — @virdas.

In music

Raja Kumari — born Svetha Yallapragada Rao in California, classically trained in Bharatanatyam — is a Grammy-nominated songwriter turned rapper who fuses hip-hop with Indian classical, working between Los Angeles and Bombay — @therajakumari.

Vidya Vox, the stage name of Vidya Iyer, built a following on East-meets-West mashups that stitch Carnatic melody into pop — one of the first diaspora musicians to go properly viral, and still going — @vidyavox.

In wellness and beauty

Jay Shetty went from a British-Indian upbringing to three years as a monk to one of the most-followed wellness voices on the planet, host of the On Purpose podcast — @jayshetty.

Diipa Büller-Khosla is the Indian creator and entrepreneur, based in Europe, who turned an influencer following into a skincare brand of her own and a seat at fashion weeks — @diipakhosla.

At the table

Padma Lakshmi — model, author, and for years the face of American food television — remains one of the diaspora's most recognisable figures, and an unapologetically Indian one — @padmalakshmi. (We wrote about her runway years in our history of Indian-origin women in the spotlight.)

Vikas Khanna, the Michelin-starred chef who cooks New York's Indian fine dining and judges MasterChef India, has made his feed a running love letter to the food and people of home — @vikaskhannagroup.

Why it matters

Scroll that list and something becomes obvious: not one of these people is famous despite being Indian. Each is followed, in part, because of the specificity they bring — the Tamil-Canadian girl's story, the Bharatanatyam in the hip-hop, the monk's years, the chef's homesickness. That is the quiet revolution of the diaspora's Instagram age: a hundred small, specific windows into what it is to be Indian somewhere else, curated by the people living it, and open to anyone who taps follow. The visibility earlier generations had to fight for — or, in some cases, hide their heritage to win — is now simply the point. The diaspora isn't waiting to be discovered anymore. It's posting.

How we chose, and what we left out

This is a snapshot, not a ranking, and deliberately spread across fields rather than crowded with actors; it favours Indian-origin talent that built or broke through in the diaspora, and it is nowhere near complete — a hundred more names could have followed. We also left a couple of obvious candidates off for a dull but important reason: we could not confirm their official handle with confidence, and pointing you to the wrong account is worse than leaving a name out. If we've missed someone you follow, that's what our inbox is for.

Handles verified at the time of writing. More on the diaspora on screen: Indians in Hollywood and the Never Have I Ever generation.