All About Los Angeles Mayor-Elect Nithya Raman’s Husband & Their Family
Los Angeles has a new mayor. City councilmember Nithya Raman has defeated incumbent Karen Bass, becoming the city’s first South Asian mayor and marking the first time an incumbent Los Angeles mayor has lost reelection since 2005. The progressive politician, who has drawn comparisons to New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, ran a campaign backed by Senator Bernie Sanders and focused on bringing a democratic socialist approach to City Hall.
Born in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, in 1981, Raman graduated from Harvard University before building a career in urban planning and political activism. She also worked in the entertainment industry, serving as the entertainment director for the Time’s Up organization before entering Los Angeles politics.
But as Raman prepares to take the reins of City Hall, attention is also turning to her life outside politics, including her husband and family.
Married to TV writer and producer Vali Chandrasekaran, Raman has a deep Hollywood connection through her husband, a five-time Emmy nominee whose credits include Modern Family and 30 Rock. The two met while attending Harvard University and have been married since 2010. Together, they embrace her new position as he supports his wife and her position. “He loves the city more than me,” Raman told the Los Angeles Times.
Below, we rounded up everything to know about Raman’s husband, their relationship, and the family they’ve built together.
What does Nithya Raman’s husband do for a living?
After Harvard, Chandrasekaran began his career as a consultant for Boston Consulting Group, according to the Los Angeles Times. While working there, he wrote spec scripts that eventually landed him an agent and helped launch his television career as a writer and co-producer on the sitcom My Name Is Earl.
Since then, Chandrasekaran has earned five Emmy nominations and worked as a writer and executive producer on hit comedies including Modern Family, 30 Rock, and The Four Seasons.
Outside of television, he co-authored the 2008 book The Ridiculous Race: 26,000 Miles, 2 Guides, 1 Globe, No Airplanes with fellow Harvard Lampoon alum Steve Hely. He also created the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Genius Animals?, illustrated by Jun-Pierre Shiozawa.
How did Nithya Raman meet her husband?
The two met at Harvard in 1999, where he was a writer for The Harvard Lampoon. They broke up while still in college but reconnected after graduation and tied the knot in 2010.
How many kids does Nithya Raman have?
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Raman has twins, a boy and a girl, named Karna and Kaveri, who recently turned 11. The family currently lives in Silver Lake. To Chandrasekaran, Los Angeles will be an important part of their family.
“If my kids didn’t want to live here because they thought somewhere else was a better place to make stuff, a cooler place to make stuff, that would break my heart. I want them to live their own lives, but I want L.A. to be the place that it was to me in their heads,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
