India-born XO, Kitty star Sasha Bhasin says South Korea changed her fashion game forever

A whirlwind of romance, friendship, family and K-worthy twists and turns, Xo, Kitty has become one of Netflix’s most-watched shows in over 50 countries. A spin-off of the beloved To all the boys Franchise, the series follows Lara Jean’s outgoing younger sister, Kitty Song Covey, as she spends a year at Kiss, the Korean boarding school her late mother attended. The first season ended with a cliffhanger where Kitty, after spending the entire season torn between two boys, realized that she had feelings for her girl Best friend Yuri, just like Yuri reunited with his Seoul-bound ex, Juliana.
Last week, Xo, Kitty Returned for its second season, opening with Kitty’s bold proclamation: this semester, she would focus on family and classes, not love. No more thinking about Yuri, Min Ho or Dae… but as luck would have it, she meets another magnificent distraction – Praveena. A bright-skinned, freshly frowning Sasha Bhasin plays Praveena, a queer South Asian student in Kiss It’s a Dream Role for India’s Florida-born actor, who always dreamed of getting into films and grew up Googling how Selena Gomez And Miley Cyrus’ career had taken off after being launched as a Disney star. In 2011, she showed up to an open call at Disney Channel to audition, but having never taken the acting class, froze on camera.
10 years later, when she left her hometown in South Florida to study politics at New York University, Bhasin took independent acting classes. She hadn’t auditioned in months and was set to take a post-college tech job when her agent got her an audition for the role of Praveena. Knowing deep in her bones that she was meant to play the character, Bhasin wooed the casting director. Two weeks later, she was on a plane to Seoul to join the Xo, Kitty casting.