Nithya Raman Promises She’ll Be a “Relentless Advocate” for Hollywood

Political rhetoric aside, Nithya Raman comes by her Hollywood bona fides honestly. Her husband, after all, is Vali Chandrasekaran, writer on Modern Family, 30 Rock and other TV hits.

On Thursday Raman went in front of the industry’s biggest names to argue that her professional credentials were on par with her personal ones and that she’s the candidate who will do the most for the entertainment business.

“There’s a lot that mayor could do, and if I’m mayor I’m going to do it,” she told the Bloomberg Screentime conference, suggesting that her rival, incumbent Karen Bass, has fallen short in this (and other) regards. Raman promised to be a “relentless advocate” for better tax credits in Sacramento, though informed observers might note that California’s tax-credit program is among the most generous; it’s the cost of food and housing that drives production costs so high.

The City Councilmember also talked up her idea for an L.A. film commissioner to ease the path for shooting, citing a high-profile recent example of a … less smooth road. “Baywatch had problems becayse the city and the county were two different jurisdictions,” she said, referring to the spring kerfuffle.

A commissioner could help in situations like that, even if Bass, after a delay, also hired a film liaison last year.

Los Angeles runaway production and the subsequent drying up of jobs has become one of many hot-button issues in the election given how many voters work in the entertainment business. Raman says she’s see the effects in her personal life. Speaking to moderator Sarah McGregor and a room packed with luminaries (she followed Casey Bloys two speakers earlier), the candidate said, “We feel lucky but we’ve seen in our friend network how jobs are fewer,” adding, “People that my husband has worked with deciding the industry uncertainty is so much that they’re either leaving the industry or Los Angeles entirely. That’s really painful to watch play out.”

After being in a nip-and-tuck race with Spencer Pratt for a second-place qualifying spot for a week following June’s primary, Raman has now surged in the head-to-head general election and leads incumbent Karen Bass by at least 15 points according to most surveys. The City Council member seems to be drawing Spencer Pratt voters (there were nearly 220,000 of them) far more successfully than her opponent, a point she sought to make in Thursday’s talk. “To every voter who voted for Spencer Pratt in the primary who’s disappointed that he’s not in the general election,” she said, “I share your frustration.”

As part of that tack to the center, Raman also sought to distance herself from the DSA after McGregor asked her about her feelings for the organization.

“I’ve spent most of my talk talking about how we need to give tax credits, which is very much at odds with what Democratic Socialists are to most people,” she said. Raman is a longstanding member of the organization dating back to 2019 and was the first DSA member in the L.A. City Council.

Bass and Raman have largely split Hollywood support since the race began earlier this year, with a younger-skewing creative set including Adam Scott and Mindy Kaling supporting Raman while Bass has attracted the likes of JJ Abrams and Samuel L. Jackson.

Raman doubled down on issues of interest to the entertainment business when asked about the Paramount Warner Bros. merger. “The deal is essentially done, and don’t want to be re-litigating this into eternity,” she said. “[But] what I would really say to David Ellison is I want those dollars that you’ve committed to production not just to be spent in America — I want them to be spent in Los Angeles.”