Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling

Vera Mindy Chokalingam, known professionally as Mindy Kaling, is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and director. She first gained recognition starring as Kelly Kapoor in the NBC sitcom The Office. She gained wider attention for creating, producing and starring in the Fox comedy series The Mindy Project. Her film career includes voice work in Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph, and Inside Out.

About Mindy Kaling in brief

Summary Mindy KalingVera Mindy Chokalingam, known professionally as Mindy Kaling, is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and director. She first gained recognition starring as Kelly Kapoor in the NBC sitcom The Office. Kaling gained wider attention for creating, producing and starring in the Fox comedy series The Mindy Project. Her film career includes voice work in Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph, and Inside Out. Her memoirs, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and Why Not Me?, reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Kaling has said she has never been called Vera, her first name, but has been called Mindy since her mother was pregnant with her while her parents were living in Nigeria, the same year Kaling was born. She lists the comedy series Dr. Katz, Saturday Night Live, Frasier and Cheers as early influences on her comedy. She wrote a blog, I’ve Bought That Love, which spawned the movie Good Will I Love You, which re-imagined how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck pretended to be best friends. She also wrote a play called Matt & Ben, which she co-wrote with her best friend from college, Brenda Withers, and was named one of Time magazine’s Ten Top Ten Events of The Year.

She has appeared in several films, including The Night Before, Ocean’s 8, and Late Night, the lattermost of which she also wrote and produced. She is the creator of the comic strip Badly Drawn Girl in The Dartmouth, and was a writer for the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern. Kaling graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in playwriting, and studied Latin, a subject she had been learning since the seventh grade. She toured solo as well with Craig Robinson in The Office & The Office, which was on TheBroadway & The Off-Broadway Show in August 2002, before he was cast as Matt Affleck in The Good Hunting. She said one of her worst job experiences was as a production assistant for three months on the Crossing Over With John Edward psychic show. She described it as “depressing” and said she never saw a family like hers on TV, which gave her a dual perspective she uses in her writing.