Nadiya Chettiar is one of the most prominent figures in today’s writer’s rooms. A Canadian actor and screenwriter of Irish-Indian descent, Chettiar has made a tenured and well-decorated career across a variety of TV shows and Variety Programs. Chattier has donned many hats as an actor, writer, and producer. From Little Mosque on the Prairie to The Best Years and most notably, The Big Bang Theory’s well-acclaimed spin-off, Young Sheldon. Nadiya Chettiar’s full gallery of work is one of the great accomplishments. In this piece, we will delve into the journey and exploits of Chettiar from trying out as an actor to the script department force of some of the most popular TV Series airing today.
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Nadiya Chettiar: Early Life and Acting Career
Born to an Indian father and Irish mother, Chettiar grew up in Grand Falls, a small town in New Brunswick, Canada. She describes her childhood as “bored but imaginative,” shaped by technology and television. Chettiar credits her father’s affinity for technology and television as motivators during her upbringing. She has recalled that watching hours of The Golden Girls, Cheers, and other sitcom classics gave her both comfort and curiosity about the structure of comedy and storytelling.
After graduation, Nadiya Chettiar began acting in Toronto and later moved to Vancouver to pursue a career in television. Her early acting credits included appearances in the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie and the teen drama The Best Years, gaining modest recognition for both.
However, her move to Vancouver coincided with the 2007–2008 writers’ strike, which disrupted the entertainment industry, particularly TV shows across North America. She has humorously said the wave of early success “crashed on the Pacific shoreline,” referring to her sudden unemployment. The struggle was compounded by her frustration with typecasting: she was often offered roles that required her to wear a headscarf, playing “vaguely Muslim” or “foreign” characters that didn’t reflect her own identity.​
This period of creative stagnation and identity conflict sowed the seeds for her eventual shift to writing. She has described how these experiences made her realize that she wanted to create authentic roles for people like herself, characters with depth and humor who didn’t fit stereotypes.​
Entering the Writer’s Room
Nadiya Chettiar made her transition into writing via radio play. Something she called an obvious first step for any writer. Using the radio play as a writing sample, she applied for an online writing course at Humber College in Toronto. “That was the beginning of me practicing to write for TV,” she says. “I wrote a few TV scripts in that program, which were terrible. From there, I continued to write and take classes and grow.”
Having maintained contacts and a good repertoire with her old television colleagues, Chettiar reached out to showrunners in Vancouver through whom she started to build a solid portfolio. In this period, she met Jennica Harper, who helped her get her first job as a script coordinator on a kids’ multi-cam sitcom called Some Assembly Required. That was followed by Package Deal, where she worked with Andrew Orenstein, whose notable works include Third Rock from the Sun and Malcolm in the Middle.
Chattier then moved to Los Angeles, the Mecca of television in North America, where she worked on a variety of television shows. She worked on the critically acclaimed show Moms until its conclusion in Season 5. Apart from television, she also worked on Netflix shows, including Kim’s Convenience and Working Moms.
Life As a Producer
Nadiya Chettiar’s accomplishments as a writer led her to work as a producer in various capacities on various TV shows. Her IMDB page lists six producer credits from Young Sheldon, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage ,and Son of a Critch, to name a few. Her work in production and post-production has not alienated her from the script and continuity department. Nadiya Chattier continues to appear as a writer in many of the projects that she produces.
The Global Indian Lens: Representation, Identity, and a Changing Entertainment Landscape
For the global Indian community, Nadiya Chettiar’s journey embodies a larger narrative, one defined by visibility, complexity, and the fight against stereotype-driven storytelling. As diaspora audiences grow more influential across North America, Europe, and Asia, their expectations have evolved beyond one-dimensional roles and reductive cultural portrayals. Chettiar’s transition from being cast in “vaguely foreign” characters to writing nuanced, layered narratives mirrors a shift within diaspora viewership itself. Global Indians today seek representation that is authentic, humorous, self-aware, and rooted in lived realities rather than clichés.
Her presence in major sitcoms and high-performing variety shows signals a meaningful change within Western entertainment. Writers of Indian descent, especially women, have historically been underrepresented in mainstream comedic spaces. By shaping storylines from behind the scenes, Chettiar not only breaks that pattern but also influences how millions perceive Indian identities on screen. In doing so, she contributes to a broader cultural movement where diaspora storytellers hold the pen rather than being written into predictable molds.
Why Diaspora Storytellers Matter: A Broader Impact on Global Entertainment
Nadiya Chettiar’s career also speaks to a turning point for global entertainment industries increasingly shaped by diaspora creatives. As platforms like Netflix, CBC, NBC, and CBS amplify diverse voices, global Indian writers, directors, and producers are emerging as key architects of cross-cultural narratives. Their work travels across borders, resonating with second- and third-generation Indians who are redefining what “Indian representation” in Western media looks like.
Chettiar stands at this intersection, where cultural heritage, diaspora humour, and universal storytelling meet. Her scripts for shows like Young Sheldon, Kim’s Convenience, and Working Moms blend mainstream appeal with subtle cultural awareness, proving that diverse perspectives enrich rather than fragment comedic storytelling. In many ways, she represents the new-age global Indian creator: rooted in identity yet fluent in global narratives, committed to authenticity yet unafraid to experiment.
Conclusion
Nadiya Chettiar is one of the most prominent figures in North American sitcoms. Her prominence has not been limited to critical acclaim, as she has received a number of accolades in Canada and the United States for her work. Chettiar has received a Leo Award nomination in British Columbia, under the Best Screenwriting in a Youth Children’s Program, and she has won the National Television Award (NTS) for Most Popular Comedy Program in 2023 for her work in Young Sheldon. At present, she continues to work on Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.
