Speaker
Mindy Kaling
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1Podcasts
Quotes & moments
After eight years on The Office as the number-11 name on the call sheet, Mindy Kaling decided she needed to be the lead of her own show and build something from scratch.
Mindy Kaling's OB-GYN mother missed Thanksgivings and school plays to care for patients — a sacrifice Mindy found glamorous as a child but now grapples with as a mother of three.
Mindy Kaling and her friend wrote the play Matt and Ben in their early 20s while working low-level jobs post-9/11 in New York — the play eventually won the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Matt and Ben won the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, transferred Off-Broadway, and became the unlikely launchpad that landed Mindy Kaling her job on The Office.
Mindy went through an identity crisis over being reclassified from 'Zillennial' to Gen X — a generational label she feels doesn't quite fit her experience growing up in the '90s.
Mindy called herself a Cancer and Enneagram 6, jokingly calling both the most 'losery' options — though she admitted she can't figure out how to apply the Enneagram practically.
Mindy Kaling's mother was an OB-GYN, and that intimate familiarity with the world of women's medicine made writing The Mindy Project feel natural — she barely had to research the setting.
Mindy's Indian immigrant parents had no showbiz connections but loved comedy — they named her Mindy after the TV character, a mixed message given they also told her not to be the class clown.
With three kids, Mindy says her biggest non-creative goal is simply being genuinely present for them — something her hardworking OB-GYN mother didn't always manage.
Mindy interned at Conan while still at Dartmouth — a competitive placement that gave her her first window into what comedy writers do and planted the seed for her whole career.
Mindy's three shows — Never Have I Ever, Sex Lives of College Girls, and Not Suitable for Work — share a common DNA: ambitious, horny underdogs who feel locked out of the life they want.
At Cannes for Inside Out, Mindy and Amy faced international journalists who asked openly about their weight and looks — a stark contrast to the more careful framing of American press.
Mindy and her friend Brenda were babysitting and substitute teaching when they started doing Ben Affleck and Matt Damon impressions for fun. Nobody thought it was serious. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival did. The play won, moved Off-Broadway, attracted celebrities — and landed Mindy The Office.
Mindy's mom sat her down at 14 and warned her not to be like Chris Farley. But Mindy's reflection cuts deeper: she says she'd have been lucky to be Chris Farley. Being a heavy, funny woman in the mid-'90s meant you had no roadmap — just closed doors.
Watching Mindy Kaling get made into a major television star wasn't just inspiring — it was proof that 'people like me are deserving of being put on a big platform.' Avantika describes auditioning for Never Have I Ever, memorizing the sign-in sheet, and wanting to befriend every girl in the waiting room.
When Avantika DM'd Mindy at 17 with a fangirl message, Mindy didn't just reply — she took her to a French restaurant in an LA strip-mall and ordered escargot. Over snails, Mindy asked: 'What do you want in life?' That question set the tone for their entire relationship.
For eight years, Steve Carell was #1 on The Office call sheet and Kelly Kapoor was #11. That hierarchy wasn't unfair — it was just the truth. But after eight years, Mindy had to find out what it felt like to be the one powering a show from 7am to wrap. So she built her own.
At the Cannes press junket for Inside Out, Amy and Mindy were asked, more or less directly, why a fat smiling woman should be a star and whether Mindy was really a Hufflepuff pretending to be a Gryffindor. Mindy's response: unlike Javier Bardem, she just laughed and sat there.
Mindy's trilogy has one DNA strand: ambitious, horny underdogs who feel they lack access to the life they want. That's Never Have I Ever, Sex Lives of College Girls, and Not Suitable for Work in one sentence. It's also, in many ways, Mindy's autobiography.
The Mindy Project was set in an OB-GYN practice because Mindy's mother was one — she barely had to research anything. Her mother spent every day with women sharing their most intimate secrets. That intimacy became the DNA of the show's world, even as the character couldn't be more different from her mom.
Mindy wants to write and direct movies, be genuinely present for her three kids, and maybe one day walk into a Dartmouth lecture hall in a beautiful sweater with 150 students staring at her. Oh, and she's ready for the day when TV shows just need 'that decrepit grand dame' for a couple of lines.
Mindy doesn't do TikTok — she's afraid she'd be too into it. What she does do: The Curse with Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone ('really strange'), Abbott Elementary, Hacks, The Pit, and most dramas. Also: she thinks Nathan Fielder is a genuine millennial heartthrob, and she's happy for him.
Mindy got on camera completely by accident: Greg Daniels needed someone Indian in the room for the Diversity Day episode so Michael Scott would actually be offending people. Being a writer who happened to be Indian landed her a role — and then an entirely different career.
Mindy walked into The Office writers' room as the only woman and the only person of color, surrounded by writers who already had Emmys. She didn't feel triumphant — she felt behind. Her survival strategy: become a workaholic and get dazzled by the talent around her.
Analysis
What they talk about
- TV & Film 55%
- Society & Culture 27%
- Arts 9%
- Health & Fitness 9%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
