Nithya Raman defeated current Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a hard-fought battle to become the 44th mayor of Los Angeles, leading the nation’s second-largest city.
The 45-year-old city councilor, who will take office in January, capitalized on voter dissatisfaction with Bass’s tenure to score a victory in the Nov. 3 election.
A member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party, Raman vowed to address Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis and bring more affordable housing.
Here’s what you need to know about Raman’s background and her rise to power.
What to know about her upbringing and family
Raman was born in 1981 in Kerala, India. Her father worked in the public sector and her mother worked in a bank in India.
At the age of 6, Raman moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, and later to Burlington, Massachusetts, with his mother.
Raman was a devout Hindu. She became a U.S. citizen when she was 22 years old.
What to know about her education
In 2003, Raman graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in social studies.
In 2008, she received a master’s degree in urban planning from MIT.
After graduation, she returned to India and worked as an urban planner in Delhi and Chennai, focusing on services such as sanitation.
In 2013, she returned to the United States to live in Los Angeles, where she worked in the City Administration Office.
What to know about her husband
Raman is married to television writer and producer Vail Chandrasekaran.
The two met while attending Harvard University and tied the knot in 2010.
Born in Athens, Pennsylvania, Chandrasekaran has worked on TV series such as “Modern Family,” “30 Rock” and “My Name is Earl.”
The couple has 10-year-old twins, a son and a daughter. The family lives in Silver Lake.
What you need to know about her career before running for Los Angeles mayor
After returning to the United States in 2013, Raman worked on homelessness policy in Los Angeles.
Before running for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, Raman served as executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, a company that grew out of the #MeToo movement and focused on sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.
In 2019, Marie Claire magazine described Raman as one of the “women transforming Hollywood” for her work with the group.
“A lot of the abuse we see is due to the incredible power imbalance in the industry,” Raman told the outlet. “I want to see a future where all workers in the industry have the power to challenge abuse and seek justice, no matter who they are or where they work.”
Homelessness in Silver Lake brought Raman into politics, first on the Silver Lake Community Council Homeless Committee and later co-founding the nonprofit homeless coalition SELAH.
In 2020, she won the Los Angeles City Council District 4 seat, making her the first outsider to defeat an incumbent in 17 years. She is reelected in 2024.