Actor-writer Anita Kalathra on her micro-drama about the Malayali diaspora in the US

Something to Prove, a micro-fiction series starring American writer-actor Anita Kalathara, opens with Maya Kurian, a 25-year-old Malayali woman born in the US, tentatively declaring it the first day of her adult life. Having lived with her parents all her life, she is starting her first job and moving away from her overbearing family. Directed by short film director Nathan Rey Gold, and written by Anita, the first season traces a “late bloomer” South Indian woman coming of age in the US.

“I had a conservative upbringing, so I was exposed to many things much later than others. That’s what I’m trying to express in a fun, relatable way,” says Anita, who also plays Dr Kavita Mohanty in the American medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. She adds, “The familial dynamics are drawn from my relationship with my mother and brother. Even though I left home before I turned 25, many of my friends stayed on well after school and college.”