From Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram roots to Los Angeles City Hall
Nithya Raman (45), a Malayali girl who left Keralam at age six, has risen to become the Mayor of Los Angeles, defeating incumbent Karen Bass. With family roots in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram, her victory is also a moment of pride for the Malayali community in the USA.
Born on 28 July 1981, Nithya Raman is the daughter of R Venkataraman, who worked with Keltron (a Public sector undertaking of Keralam, producing electronic equipment), and Sudha, an employee of Indian Overseas Bank. Her father hails from Thiruvananthapuram, while her mother is from Thrissur. Her grandfather, K Rama Iyer, served as a postmaster, and the family once lived in the East Fort area of Thiruvananthapuram.
Father Venkataraman later moved to Mumbai after leaving Keltron before eventually relocating to the United States. Nithya was around six years old when the family migrated to America. In Keralam, she attended pre-primary classes at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Her relatives say Nithya was a talented dancer during her childhood. She has a brother who is also settled in the United States. She last visited Thrissur in 2019 for a family function and was expected to return in November 2026, say relatives.
Nithya graduated in Social Studies from Harvard University before earning a Master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her professional interests brought her back to India for a while. In 2010, she co-founded Transparent Chennai, an initiative focused on urban poverty and the difficulties marginalised communities face in accessing basic amenities.
The organisation worked on issues such as sanitation, waste management, drinking water and access to public services. It sought to use research, mapping and citizen participation to make urban governance more responsive to the needs of disadvantaged communities. She later worked in Delhi and Chennai before moving to Los Angeles in 2013 with her husband, Vali Chandrasekaran, a television writer and producer of Tamil origin.
She served as executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment in the United States. This advocacy initiative emerged in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement and campaigned against sexual harassment and discrimination in the entertainment industry. Nithya’s entry into electoral politics was closely linked to her experience of homelessness in Los Angeles, California.
After settling in the Silver Lake neighbourhood, she became involved in local initiatives to assist people living on the streets. She worked with the neighbourhood council’s homelessness committee and helped establish the SELAH Neighbourhood Homeless Coalition in 2017. Her involvement in these activities gradually drew her towards public office. Believing voluntary efforts alone could not address the scale of the city’s housing and homelessness problems, she decided to run in the 2020 Los Angeles City Council election. She was re-elected in 2024.
Nithya is associated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a progressive political organisation, and is often described as part of the emerging generation of left-leaning Democratic politicians in the United States. Nithya lives in the Silver Lake neighbourhood with her husband Vali Chandrasekaran and their twins, Karna and Kaveri.
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