Manish Kulkarni is a teacher at Sherman Oaks High. He teaches English and he and Devi are friendly with each other, due to both being Indian and Devi's good performance in his class. He is also Kamala's boyfriend. He is portrayed by Utkarsh Ambudkar.
Personality[]
Overall, Manish Kulkarni seems like a relaxed English teacher who cares about his students and is seen as the coolest teacher on staff. When Devi gets suspended and comes back to school to try to say sorry to Aneesa, he catches her trespassing twice. The first time he does, Kamala comes to pick Devi up, this being his first meeting with her, she and him take jabs at Devi, hinting that he has a snarky and/or sarcastic streak.
Background[]
Manish Kulkarni's ex-girlfriend and him once broke up right after they signed up for a couple's cooking class for eleven weeks straight, forcing him to see her every Wednesday at her class. He had to see her every week and was reminded of the things that annoyed him about her such as her cackling laugh, her overuse of the word "random," and her constantly bringing up her semester in London which he found "basic."
Eventually, Manish Kulkarni was hired at Sherman Oaks as an English teacher and one of the main guiding forces around the school at which Manish teaches, along with coaching the soccer team. Manish used to play favorites with Devi as she used to be the only Indian student at Sherman Oaks.
He is currently dating Devi's older cousin Kamala Nandiwadal and agrees to learn more about his culture and heritage from Nirmala Vishwakumar, Devi's paternal grandmother.
Throughout the Series[]
Season 2[]
Seeing the "New Indian Kid"[]
Cooler Devi found!
Manish Kulkarni was one of Devi's favorite teachers because he had always treated her well even in comparison to how nicely he always treated other students. However, this all changed when Manish Kulkarni met Sherman Oaks High's newest student, Aneesa Qureshi.
Aneesa immediately hit it off extremely well with Manish who liked the student's confidence and radiant personality. Manish recognized Aneesa of her being from Toluca Prep and immediately asked her to join the school soccer team because he had seen her skills in the past.
Crush on Kamala[]
Ever since he first met Kamala, it was incredibly obvious that he had feelings for her. To the point where he asked about her at Devi's parent-teacher conference, and then pretending that he asks about all his students cousins. He came to the mixer that Nirmala threw to find Kamala a potential partner. Even though Nirmala had been persistent about Manish not being the one, he still pressed on and still managed to be respectful to Nirmala. Despite not being her definition of "a proper man" she eventually came around to him.
Mock Trial[]
Manish assigned Devi, Aneesa, and Ben to the defense team and Fabiola, Paxton, and Malcolm to the prosecution. When Devi can't handle being around Aneesa and Ben's budding romance, she tells Manish she can't work with the defense team and asks Manish to switch her into a different team to which he refuses. Even though he didn't switch Devi out, he did teach her a pretty solid lesson about dealing with exes. After that she managed to end up having a pretty nice mock trial and even was able to see that Ben was just the same person she used to bicker with for years and not the boy she's in love with.
Season 3[]
To be added...
Season 4[]
Manish is seen at the end walking with Kamala in Baltimore at an ice cream shop. Since he moved to Baltimore, it is highly possible that he no longer teaches at Sherman Oaks High.
Appearances[]
Season 2[] |
Season 3[] |
Season 4[] |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Manish was a potential love interest for Kamala Nandiwadal as they were seen flirting, and she left dinner with Prashant's family to attend the faculty karaoke night in ... been a perfect girl.
- The two are now an official couple.