Nithya Raman is the 45-year-old urban planner who, on 3 November 2026, defeated incumbent Karen Bass to become the mayor-elect of Los Angeles — the first Indian-American, the first South Asian and the first Hindu mayor of America’s second-largest city. A Los Angeles City Council member since 2020 and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, she won with 52.70% of the vote in a race she entered only hours before the filing deadline, having previously endorsed the mayor she went on to defeat.
Her journey runs from Thrissur in Kerala to Harvard and MIT, through Delhi’s slum demolitions and a civic-data project in Chennai, to grassroots homelessness work in Silver Lake. This biography covers her age, family, education, career, election win and net worth.
| Full Name | Nithya Varsha Raman |
| Date of Birth | 28 July 1981 |
| Age | 45 years old (as of November 2026) |
| Birthplace | Thrissur, Kerala, India |
| Occupation | Politician, Urban Planner — Mayor-elect of Los Angeles |
| Known For | First Indian-American mayor of Los Angeles; defeating incumbent Karen Bass in 2026 |
| Spouse | Vali Chandrasekaran (married 2010) |
| Net Worth 2026 | Not publicly disclosed — see Net Worth section below |
Early Life and Education
Nithya Varsha Raman was born on 28 July 1981 in Thrissur, Kerala, into a Tamil Iyer family. Her father, R. Venkitaraman, was an engineer with Keltron, the state-run electronics enterprise, and came from Thiruvananthapuram; her mother, Sudha, worked for the Indian Overseas Bank and came from Thrissur. Raman attended kindergarten at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Thrissur before the family moved to the United States when she was six, settling in Burlington, Massachusetts, where she grew up. She became a United States citizen at the age of 22.
Raman studied social studies at Harvard University, graduating in 2003. It was at Harvard that she met Vali Chandrasekaran, a fellow student who would become her husband. Her undergraduate years shaped her politics: she has said a programme on housing opportunities influenced her thinking about insecurity and how to stabilise people in difficult moments. She went on to earn a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2008.
Work in India: Delhi and Chennai
After graduating from Harvard, Raman returned to India and spent four years working on urban poverty. In Delhi she worked with organisations representing slum dwellers, documenting the demolitions and forced evictions that took place as the capital prepared for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, when authorities cleared more than 100,000 residents from settlements along the Yamuna. She recorded conditions in the distant resettlement colonies to which families were moved and pressed for water and sanitation that the state had treated as optional.
From Delhi she moved to Chennai, where in 2010 she co-founded Transparent Chennai, a civic-data initiative under the Centre for Development Finance. The project mapped public toilets, bus routes and pedestrian infrastructure in neighbourhoods that municipal maps had simply omitted, then used the data to press for investment in basic services for low-income communities. In 2010 she married Vali Chandrasekaran, by then a television writer and producer, in Bengaluru.
Los Angeles and Homelessness Advocacy
Raman moved to Los Angeles with her husband in 2013. She took a post with the city’s chief administrative officer, examining how public money was spent on homelessness — work that brought her close to one of the city’s most persistent problems. She then became involved in neighbourhood-level advocacy, co-chairing the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s homelessness committee, and in 2017, while eight-and-a-half months pregnant, she co-founded the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, a grassroots organisation supporting people experiencing homelessness with food, clothing, healthcare, housing and employment assistance.
Believing that voluntary efforts alone could not address the scale of the housing crisis, she decided to run for office. In 2020 she challenged long-serving Councilmember David Ryu for the District 4 seat, campaigning with a volunteer army that knocked on more than 80,000 doors and the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America. She won — the first time in 17 years a challenger had unseated a sitting member of the Los Angeles City Council — becoming the first Asian-American woman and the first South Asian person elected to the council. She was re-elected decisively in March 2024 and chaired the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, advancing tenant protections against harassment and buyouts, stronger rent stabilisation, universal just-cause eviction protections and measures requiring landlords to report evictions.
2026 Mayoral Election
In early 2026, hours before the filing deadline, Raman entered the mayoral race against incumbent Karen Bass — despite having previously endorsed Bass. She finished second in the June primary behind Bass and advanced to the November runoff. Her campaign focused on housing affordability, homelessness, infrastructure, public safety and the effectiveness of City Hall, promising to reduce street homelessness substantially, expand housing construction and deliver housing at every income level. Like Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York City, she campaigned as a progressive outsider against an established incumbent — and like him, she won.
On election night, Tuesday 3 November 2026, Bass led in the first returns. As later ballots were counted, Raman pulled ahead. The Associated Press called the race for Raman on Thursday 5 November, and Bass conceded by telephone the same day, congratulating Raman and promising a smooth transition. The latest figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, updated at 4:34 pm on 5 November, showed Raman with 460,772 votes (52.70%) against Bass’s 413,519 (47.30%), a lead of 47,253 votes, with counting still under way and certification scheduled for 27 November 2026.
The result made history on several fronts. Raman will become the first Asian-American, Indian-American, South Asian and Hindu mayor of Los Angeles, and the first challenger to defeat a sitting mayor of the city since 2005 — the first mayoral re-election defeat in more than two decades. She will take office on 14 December 2026 as the city’s 44th mayor, with the 2028 Olympics looming as a major test for her administration. She has named homelessness, housing costs, public safety and economic development as her four immediate priorities. Fellow politician Pawan Kalyan similarly rose to high office from outside the traditional political establishment.
Personal Life
Raman is married to Vali Chandrasekaran, a television writer and producer of Tamil origin. The couple met as students at Harvard in 1999 and married in Bengaluru in 2010. They live in the Silver Lake neighbourhood of Los Angeles with their twin children, a son and a daughter named Karna and Kaveri. Her parents, Sudha and Venkitaraman, her brother Akash and her husband’s family were with her at the polling station on election day, and relatives in Kerala followed the results closely through the night.
Outside politics, Raman is known for her Bharatanatyam training at Kalakshetra in Chennai and for a career built on data and fieldwork rather than party politics.
Nithya Raman Net Worth 2026
Nithya Raman’s net worth in 2026 has not been publicly disclosed, and no reliable source publishes a figure for it. Unlike celebrity biographies, where media outlets routinely estimate fortunes, there is no published estimate of Raman’s personal wealth from any reputable outlet checked for this biography, and no financial disclosure figure has been reported in the coverage of her election win.
What is known about her finances is limited to her career: she has spent her working life in public service, research and non-profit work — as an urban planner, a city employee, a neighbourhood advocate and, since 2020, a city councilmember — rather than in private business. Until a reliable figure is published, no net worth number is stated here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Nithya Raman?
Nithya Raman is 45 years old. She was born on 28 July 1981 in Thrissur, Kerala, India.
Who is Nithya Raman’s husband?
Nithya Raman’s husband is Vali Chandrasekaran, a television writer and producer. They met as students at Harvard University in 1999 and married in Bengaluru in 2010. He becomes the First Gentleman of Los Angeles when she takes office.
How tall is Nithya Raman?
Nithya Raman’s height has not been publicly reported by any reliable source, so no height figure is stated here.
What is Nithya Raman’s net worth in 2026?
Her net worth has not been publicly disclosed. No reliable source publishes a figure for it, so no number is stated here. She has spent her career in public service, research and non-profit work rather than private business.
When does Nithya Raman take office as Los Angeles mayor?
Nithya Raman takes office on 14 December 2026 as the 44th mayor of Los Angeles. She defeated incumbent Karen Bass in the 3 November 2026 election, winning 52.70% of the vote to Bass’s 47.30%.
Where was Nithya Raman born?
Nithya Raman was born in Thrissur, Kerala, India. She moved to the United States with her family at the age of six and grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts, before studying at Harvard University and MIT.
