Exclusive: Richa Moorjani on playing the badass Captain Zoya Zaveri in episode 5 of the hit series Alien: Earth

It was a momentous text in May 2024 that brought Richa Moorjani into the historically coveted sci-fi horror universe of the Alien franchise. Ever since Ridley Scott’s movie about a spacecraft intercepting extraterrestrial activity gained popularity in 1979, eight more Alien sequels and prequels have hit cinemas, spawning a cult fandom of their own. The latest iteration, FX’s Alien: Earth, created by director Noah Hawley and streaming on JioHotstar, is the first TV series to be introduced in the mix. “When I received the text from Noah, I thought it was spam. I had worked with him last year on Fargo and he never texts,” Moorjani says, joining in on a video call from her sunny California home.

Photo courtesy: Patrick Brown/FX

Thankfully, the message was far from staged. On September 2, a little over a year later, a special flashback episode of Alien: Earth starring Moorjani as the captain of a fictional spaceship released to global anticipation. The 36-year-old actor, whom you may remember as Kamala, Devi’s hot older cousin from Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, further cemented her place in the industry in 2023 by playing Deputy Indira Olmsted in season five of crime series Fargo. “When it came to Alien though, there was no audition. Just a message, then one call and I was on a flight to Bangkok to shoot the series,” she shares.