'Never Have I Ever' star Jaren Lewison breaks down the show's first 10 episodes and what he hopes to see in season 2

• Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for season one of Netflix's "Never Have I Ever."
• "NHIE" star Jaren Lewison, who stars as Ben Gross, spoke to Insider about the positive feedback from fans, his experience working with cocreator Mindy Kaling, and what he'd like to see in a potential second season.
• The 19-year-old actor said that he's a "massive" fan of "The Office," so he was thrilled to be able to work with Kaling and Angela Kinsey, who plays his on-screen mom on the show.
• Lewison said that he's Team Ben because his character "relates to Devi in a lot of ways and he definitely cares for her. He's genuine about it. I like that they challenge each other, personality-wise and academically."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Never Have I Ever" star Jaren Lewison spoke to Insider about the incredible response from fans, working with "The Office" alum Mindy Kaling, and what he'd like to see in a potential second season.

"The reaction has been absolutely mind-blowing," Lewison, who stars as Ben Gross on the Netflix show, told us. "This is one of the biggest things I've ever done, so I'm not used to having this reception and to see how much the show means to everybody."

"NHIE," released on April 27, centers on a first-generation Indian American teen named Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) who spends the start of her sophomore year trying to shed her uncool reputation at Sherman Oaks High School months after a traumatic event. The series was created by Lang Fisher and Kaling, whose own experience as an Indian Hindu served as inspiration.

On 'NHIE,' Lewison portrays Devi's school nemesis who's been competing with her since the first grade

Aside from constantly trying to one-up each other on test scores, Devi and Ben created a contract to divide extracurricular activities. Their rivalry is also what pushes them to do better in school and outshine each other.

Lewison, who's currently a freshman at the University of Southern California, told Insider that he "immediately" related to Ben prior to auditioning.

"There's definitely a lot of parts of Ben that are very similar to me," the 19-year-old actor said. "Ben's huge in academics and I'm a student at USC and I was when we were shooting, so I love being academically-challenged."

Lewison 'could not keep [himself] together' when he met Kaling for the first time

The actor said he's a "massive" fan of the "The Office" and tried to play it cool when he met the actress, but instead ended up laughing and making a "goofy joke."

"Working with her is the best experience ever," Lewison said. "She's so sweet and kind and caring and gives you so much freedom as an actor to play with. She's so collaborative, she knows how to work with actors. Obviously, being an actress, she knows the best way to approach it."

Lewison also said that Kaling was a great mentor to himself and the other young cast members.

"Since she's a mom, she's so great with all of us," he said, explaining that they felt comfortable to "be able to relax and feel calm" while on set.

"Everyone's so positive and so professional and focused," Lewison continued. "It just fosters such a great collaborative environment to create these awesome pieces of art."

Lewison enjoyed getting to peel back the complicated layers of his character as the season progressed

"I really, really liked some of the opposites of Ben," the actor said. "Ben can be very abrasive at times. He doesn't come across in the first few episodes as someone who's going to be likable and going to have this profound character arc. Reading more of the scripts and getting the chance to play a character who has so much depth and who has so much under the surface to them is every actor's dream."

Lewison credited Kaling, Lang, and the writing team for giving the actors the freedom to experiment with their characters.

"As an actor, it's challenging and it's scary sometimes, but that's what you look for," he told us. "You look for roles that are going to challenge you and are going to inspire people."

He added: "Having it be for a bigger meaning than just a regular role and having it mean so much to people, that's what attracts actors to incredible roles and hopefully, great performances."

Lewison got a sense of Ben's story arc early in the audition process

Ben comes off as snarky at school even Devi describes him as "pretentious and unlikable," but he's much different below the surface. At his parent's lavish home, he spends most of his time playing video games or basketball by himself and talking to people on "Rick and Morty" Reddit threads.

His parents, Howard (Michael Badalucco) and Vivian (Angela Kinsey), are also never around and despite being a star student, Ben struggles to really capture their attention.

Lewison told us that he got a "small glimpse" of Ben's story arc when she screen-tested for the show with an emotional scene that was "pretty much identical" to the scene in which Ben breaks down crying in Nalini's (Poorna Jagannathan) office during episode six.

"I got a glimpse that there would be a lot more to Ben than just being this surface-level kind of academic nemesis, and I was ready for it," the actor said.

Lewison had so much fun working with 'The Office' star Angela Kinsey that he completely 'lost it' at one point

Lewison said that during episode six, director Kabir Akhtar gave Kinsey the freedom to improvise for a take, and he "could not keep it together," because of how entertaining the moment was.

"Angela's also unbelievably kind and nice," he said. "She and I talked for like, an hour in the makeup trailer. She was already done, but she just sat and chatted with me and she actually went to my high school when she was in eighth grade in Texas, which is super weird."

Lewison added: "She even gave me a little bit of advice and every time she was on set, I didn't stop laughing."

As a self-proclaimed fan of Andy Samberg, Lewison thought it was 'wild' that the actor narrated his character's inner thoughts

Devi's thoughts are narrated by tennis legend John McEnroe during every episode, except the sixth one, which focuses on Ben. For that episode, "Saturday Night Live" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star Samberg stepped in to walk viewers through Ben's life.

Lewison said that during his screen test, one of the scenes actually involved Ben meeting Samberg at a Jamba Juice and "fangirling" over him.

"That would have been me in real life," Lewison said. "I think he's brilliant, he's so funny, he's got great depth."

He added: "To have him narrate an episode for my character was just a dream come true. He's so fantastic and he seems like such an amazing guy and I think he's crazy talented, so it definitely helped elevate that episode for sure, and to have him narrate your thoughts is so wild."

The stars of 'NHIE' found clever ways to connect with fans online

Because the coronavirus pandemic prevented the cast from getting to interact with viewers of the show in-person, Ramakrishnan suggested that the cast members crash some watch parties. They downloaded the Netflix Party extension on Chrome and asked fans to send them their information so the actors could join some virtual parties.

"It's great because even though it's not in person, it's still a little bit of joy that we get the experience with people and we get to watch a little bit of the show with them, which is amazing," Lewison told us.

He continued: "They were so excited and I honestly I may have been more excited to meet them, because it's so much fun getting to interact with fans, especially when we haven't been able to leave our houses every day because of quarantine."

Lewison knew that 'NHIE' was a special show when he read the scripts

Viewers have praised the series for its refreshing focus on a South Asian lead, its diversity, and the way it balances humor with serious storylines.

"It just feels like this magical piece of art," Lewison said.

"And then when you culminate that with an incredible cast who's really funny and bring so much depth to each of their characters, and then a crew that's so passionate and works so well, you're going to get something that hopefully people really enjoy and relate to," he continued.

The actor said that the reaction has been particularly welcome considering what's happening in the world.

"Especially in quarantine, to be a source of joy for so many people that are stuck at home and may not be as happy as usual and to have an upbeat, relatable, diverse show with so many different types of personalities and people within it, it's just so fantastic," Lewison said.

"Seeing the social media reaction, it honestly almost brings a tear to my eyes," he added.

Lewison's favorite scene from season 1 is when Ben learns he's been catfished

In episode six, Ben meets up with a Reddit user named TheRealPickleRick69, who he assumed was a fan of the show that was also his age. Instead, Ben ended up coming-face-to-face with a creepy middle-aged man (played by David Theune) at a pizza shop.

Lewison said that scene turned into "a massive joke on set" and an unnamed prankster attempted to get him to break character by hiding photos of Theune as Pickle Rick around the set that only Lewison could see.

"It really just became me checking corners and opening cabinets," he said. "They were so creative about where they were hiding pictures of him and they were all different."

Lewison's also proud of the scene from Ben's 16th birthday, where he tries to kiss Devi twice.

"That was such a difficult scene and we worked with the amazing Anu [Valia], who's our director, and we worked on that scene for a ton of hours because we wanted to make sure that Ben wasn't coming across as creepy and maybe he was coming across as so sweet," he said.

"It was so multi-leveled and important for their relationship in the character arc, and even a little bit foreshadowing to what we saw in 10, which is that last scene."

Lewison is Team Ben, and his reasoning makes a lot of sense

By the end of season one, Devi finds herself in a love triangle with Ben (who previously called her an "unf---able nerd) and Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), an attractive jock who Devi had her eyes on since she made a vow to be less nerdy.

During the finale, she seemed to connect with Ben after he went out of his way to drive her Malibu so she could bury her dad's ashes with her mom and cousin, Kamala (Richa Moorjani). He waited the whole time to make sure Devi was OK, and the moment made her realize that Ben really cared about her, so she kissed him.

"I thought it was adorable and I love Ben and Devi's connection," he said. "Maitreyi was fantastic throughout when we were working together and those scenes are just really important for the story and to have those feel so right is just exactly what we were going for."

Cases could be made for why Ben or Paxton should end up with Devi, but Lewison thinks Ben is more compatible with her.

"I'm going to be Team Ben," he told us. "I think that Ben relates to Devi in a lot of ways and he definitely cares for her. He's genuine about it. I like that they challenge each other, personality-wise and academically."

Talking about Ben and Devi's connection, Lewison said that "because Ben has grown up with a very limited amount of parental support, he's definitely looking for attention."

Lewison added that their academic rivalry pushed them both to be better and he thinks the romantic feelings between formed when Ben and Devi "saw different sides of each other."

The actor said that for him, the "first moment" when their dynamic changed was when Devi cried in front of Ben.

"I think that's when Ben realized, like, she's got feelings that are as deep or deeper than his," Lewison said. "And I think that's something that he was craving."

Plus, when Ben saw how Devi was trying to juggle everything in her life (her friendships, her family relationships, her school life), it "was something that started to attract Ben."

"And then obviously, seeing how much she loves her family, her friends, her everything, I think was really what sold it for Ben in that last episode and why he was ready to drive her to Malibu," he added.

Lewison thinks that Ben and Devi need to work on themselves as individuals first before considering a relationship with each other

Plus, Ben still technically has a girlfriend named Shira (Hanna Stein).

"I think that Ben does have a long way to go, and I think Devi does too," Lewison said. "Devi is still working on learning how to be a better friend and learning how to balance time with friends and boys. And I think they both have a lot of personal growth to do.

If there is a second season of "NHIE," Lewison would be interested to see how Devi and Ben would move forward.

"I don't know where it's going to go with their relationship and how their maturity level fares and how they're gonna react to different situations that they both find themselves in — if they're going to band together or if they're going to fall into old ways," the actor said. "So I guess that's something that we have to find out, hopefully."

Lewison and his costars bonded when they weren't filming, and regularly talk in a group chat

"I genuinely love each and every one of them," the actor said "We hung out outside of work, which I think is so special. From the first day on set, we immediately clicked."

Prior to their first official table read, the cast had a few spare hours and decided to go bowling together.

"And I will tell you, Maitreyi is terrible and I think Darren might have won very, very slightly, but I think I could beat him," Lewison recalled.

They also went to Halloween Horror Nights as the Scooby-Doo gang and "had a little pool day" at Moorjani's home.

"We have a group chat that we always text in and we've been checking up on each other a lot because all of my castmates are really genuinely, unbelievably talented, but super, super sweet people," Lewison said.

He continued: "Working with them is every actor's hope, to get actors that are so giving on-screen and so giving off-screen with people and not to mention they're unbelievably funny."

"I cannot stop laughing when I'm with them," Lewison added. "It always raises my spirits. Any time I'm feeling down or anything like that, I immediately text one of them or all of them and I think it really shows on-screen too when you have that kind of rapport with a cast. "

When people watch 'NHIE' Lewison hopes that they find some character or aspect that they can relate to

"I really hope that people see how many different types of people we have, personality-wise, diversity-wise," he told us. "I think that our show showcases how different people's lives are and how we can all learn to understand parts of each other."

He continued: "I think that we have so many different types of people on our show that are going to be relatable for audiences and no matter what your background is or your cultural background, I think that there's something for everyone in our show that they can relate to."

"When you have witty and smart and beautiful writing with incredible actors and incredible crew, our story will mean a lot to people that hadn't seen it because I think it is special what our show is done, Lewison added.

"I think that we're going to continue striving toward telling relatable, sweet, deep, complex stories if we get the chance to have more seasons, that, hopefully, people continue to relate to and continue to love as much as we do."

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