This ‘Modern Family’ writer will be L.A.’s ‘first gentleman’ if Raman is elected mayor – Los Angeles Times

This ‘Modern Family’ writer will be L.A.’s ‘first gentleman’ if Raman is elected mayor  Los Angeles Times

Nithya Raman was working the beer taps, refilling the glasses of tipsy patrons during a campaign stop at Tom Bergin's Irish pub in the Fairfax District. After topping off a final glass, she made a beeline for the man sitting in the corner, quietly nursing his Guinness. He has no official role in Raman's campaign for Los Angeles mayor, but he's frequently by her side on the campaign trail, as he was this St. Patrick's Day. His name is Vali Chandrasekaran, and if Raman edges out incumbent Karen Bass in the Nov. 3 mayoral election, he will be the first to be what one might call the "first gentleman" of Los Angeles.

"He loves the city more than me," Raman said the other day ("as much," campaign aide Tessa Wick quickly interjected). Chandrasekaran, 45, has good reason to love Los Angeles. The son of Indian immigrants to America who grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, he has become a successful writer and producer, working on hit shows like "Modern Family" and "30 Rock." L.A. was always where Chandrasekaran wanted to be, he said, a place where your pedigree doesn't matter as long as you are talented. "If you just make something good, nobody cares what you did before that," he said. "It is so rad to me." Like