Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling in 2008

Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979), known professionally as Mindy Kaling, is an American comedian, writer, actor, producer, and director. She has received numerous accolades for her work, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Tony Award, as well as six Primetime Emmy Awards nominations.

Quotes

• I was at the movies yesterday, and before the movie started they had this long ad where they were trying to say … "Don't download things illegally" et cetera. And … they were like, "You wouldn't steal a purse, would you? You wouldn't think of stealing a car." And I was thinking about it … and I was like, "You know what? I would steal a car if it was as easy as, like, touching the car, and then 30 seconds later I own the car." And, like, I would steal a car if … [even though I stole] the car, the person who owned the car got to keep the car. And I would also steal a car if no one I had ever met had ever bought a car before in their whole lives.
  • Comedy Death-Ray 4th Anniversary, Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Los Angeles (September 30, 2006)
• I simply regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world created therein has different rules than my regular human world. …. There is no difference between Ripley from Alien and any Katherine Heigl character.
  • "Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real", from Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) (2011)
• I'm going to gently assume that if you're reading this book, you are a little bit of a nerd, or perhaps you're a man whose nerd girlfriend is taking a long time in the bathroom and you can't figure out how to turn on her television.
  • "Please Like Me", from Why Not Me? (2015)
• I’m surprised when I remember that, physically, I resemble most women in this country. In the United States, a woman who is 5 feet 4 inches and a size 10 is probably more common than virtually any other body type. But somehow when she is on-screen it’s shocking to people, almost as shocking as seeing a married couple on TV where the man and woman are roughly the same age.
  • "I Am What I Am (Plus or Minus Five Pounds)", from Why Not Me? (2015)
• When you’re starting out [as a television writer], mostly it’s terrifying because you think you could get fired and then never get hired again. If you see some of the statistics for women of color on writing staffs, you’ll see that even if there’s parity, it’s so hard to get promoted and stay on a show. A whopping majority of upper-level writers are still white men. You see a lot of people of color in the younger ranks, but it’s hard to move up.
• I think there’s been a tendency for people to conflate my characters with my personality. … I wrote 24 episodes of The Office. That’s more than any other person on The Office, but no one can really picture me sitting and doing the hard work of writing the episodes.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Mindy Kaling on Wikipedia
• Media related to Mindy Kaling on Wikimedia Commons
• Mindy Kaling on IMDb