Mindy Kaling

Vera Mindy Chokalingam, known professionally as Mindy Kaling, is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer born on June 24, 1979. She is best known for her television work, including her roles in NBC's comedy series The Office and Fox's The Mindy Project, as well as creating several popular television series. Over her career, she has earned a Tony Award, six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, the 2021 National Medal of the Arts, and the 2023 Norman Lear Achievement in Television Award from the Producers Guild of America. In 2012, she established her own production company, Kaling International.

Kaling was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to an architect father, Avudaiappan Chokalingam, and an obstetrician/gynecologist mother, Swati Roy Sircar. Her parents were living in Nigeria before immigrating to the United States in 1979 with her elder brother. Raised with the name Mindy, she attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, graduating in 1997, and subsequently entered Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, Kaling participated in an improvisational comedy troupe, an a cappella group, and wrote for the college humor magazine before graduating in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in playwriting. She cites shows like Saturday Night Live and Frasier as early comedic influences.

After moving to Brooklyn, Kaling performed stand-up comedy and adopted her stage name to simplify her surname for emcees. Her career gained momentum in 2002 when she co-wrote and co-starred in the off-Broadway play Matt & Ben alongside Brenda Withers. In 2004, producer Greg Daniels hired Kaling as a writer and performer for the American adaptation of The Office. At age 24, she was the only woman on the initial writing staff. She portrayed Kelly Kapoor on the show, eventually becoming its most prolific writer with twenty-four credited episodes and serving as an executive producer.

Following her success on The Office, Kaling launched The Mindy Project in 2012, serving as its creator, producer, and star across its run on Fox and Hulu through 2017. She expanded her work as a television creator and producer with shows such as Champions, Netflix's Never Have I Ever, HBO Max's The Sex Lives of College Girls, and the animated spin-off Velma. In 2025, she co-created the Netflix sports comedy series Running Point.

Beyond television, Kaling has acted in live-action films including No Strings Attached, The Five-Year Engagement, A Wrinkle in Time, Ocean's 8, and Late Night, which she also wrote and produced. Her voice-acting roles include characters in Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and Inside Out. She has published multiple memoirs, two of which became New York Times bestsellers, and won a Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer on the Broadway musical A Strange Loop.

Throughout her career, Kaling has earned numerous accolades, including being named to the Time 100 list in 2013 and receiving an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College in 2018. She is a mother of three children. In recent years, she served as a board member for the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art and joined the Oscar-nominated short film Anuja as a producer.