Mindy Kaling

Born June 24, 1979 in Cambridge, Massachussetts, Mindy Kaling knew she was destined to work in television when she learned her parents named her after Pam Dawber’s character from the TV show Mork and Mindy.

Kaling attended Dartmouth University where she showed off her comedic talents by joining an improvisational group, wrote skits for an a capella group and drew her own comic strip for the student newspaper. She was an intern on Late Night with Conan O’Brien during her sophomore year.

After college, Kaling and her former roommate Brenda Withers wrote a satirical play entitled Matt & Ben, with Kaling playing the part of Ben Affleck in 2002. As luck would have it, Greg Daniels (producer of The Office) was in the audience and very impressed. He later hired her to join the writing staff of the NBC comedy, which aired from 2005 to 2013. In addition to being a writer, Kaling soon became a series regular as Kelly Kapoor.

The actress has also appeared in movies such as Ocean’s 8, Late Night, The 40 Year Old Virgin and No Strings Attached. She starred in the sitcom The Mindy Project, which she also created and co-produced, from 2012 to 2017, and she played a supporting role on the 2018 sitcom Champions, which she co-created. She also adapted the hit film Four Weddings and a Funeral as a Hulu miniseries in 2019.

The Why Not Me? author lends her voice to Disney+’s Monsters at Work series and has a recurring role on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show opposite Reese Witherspoon, who she also worked with on A Wrinkle in Time. The duo is teaming up again as Kaling pens the Legally Blonde 3 script.

The writer is also co-creator, writer and executive producer of two hit teen shows, HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, which debuted in 2021, and Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, which debuted in 2021 and is set to end with the fourth season.

Kaling is a single mom. She welcomed daughter Katherine in 2017 and son Spencer in 2020. She has not publicly confirmed the identity of their father.