Mindy Kaling on Her ‘The Office’ Legacy, the Status of ‘Legally Blonde 3’ and Planning a Return to Acting
Mindy Kaling is ready to step back in front of the camera. After both writing and starring in “The Office” and “The Mindy Project” (which she also created) early in her career, Kaling took a break from acting in recent years to focus on building a string of successful TV series — not to mention raising three young kids. That’s why you haven’t seen her pop into some of her hit comedies like “Never Have I Ever” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”
But that acting itch is making a bit of a return, particularly after she recently watched a few episodes of “Never Have I Ever” with her young cousins. “I was like, ‘As someone who has my own TV show and loves to act, how did I not act in the show about an Indian American family?’” Kaling says. “It was going so good that I didn’t want to jinx it by appearing in it, or it might be a distraction.”
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On “Sex Lives,” Kaling jokes that there’s still a chance she could play an “unhinged Latin professor.”
“Knock wood if we go to Season 4, that would be great,” she says. “I watch that cast, and it just makes me want to act.”
Beyond guesting on one of her shows, Kaling says she’s pondering whether to write herself a part in a new series: “I wouldn’t have to be the lead in my own show if I was writing it. I would love to write a show for someone amazing and then play a supporting part in it.”
Add this to the list of Kaling’s 2025 goals. She already has plenty on her plate, starting with her upcoming Netflix show “Running Point,” which stars Kate Hudson as the ambitious new president of her family’s basketball team (inspired by the real-life Los Angeles Lakers boss Jeannie Buss). Kaling is also writing “Legally Blonde 3” with pal Dan Goor, and her company, Kaling Intl., is developing projects including the CBS sitcom pilot “Zarna,” starring comedian Zarna Garg.
In other words, she may not pop up on your TV screen as often, but Kaling’s never stopped working. And she’s earned plenty of accolades for it as of late, including the National Medal of Arts in 2023 and Producers Guild of America’s Norman Lear Achievement Award in 2024.
Now, as she receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this month, it’s a unique moment for Kaling to take stock of where her career has been and where it’s going.
What are you feeling as you prepare to see your name in pavement next to some of the biggest names in the history of Hollywood?
I think it’s like with aging, where mentally I’m still 24 and a staff writer on “The Office.” But then it’s like, oh, actually, I’m 45 and I’ve done these other things. Maybe it’s from being a comedy writer, but it feels like if you ever slow down and take a moment where you celebrate yourself or have any kind of self reflection, something bad is going to happen. It’s something to be mocked, like the worst kind of character on “The Office” or any of those other shows who take themselves too seriously.
But part of being a good role model and a good human is actually being so grateful for this. For lack of a better phrase, just taking it in. Although I think I detest that phrase “taking it in.” I’m just going to be sincerely grateful for this, to whomever the shadowy committee is that decided I was worthy of a star.
Because it kind of is like the real-life Dundies, right?
That’s so funny, it is the Dundies! You don’t want to be seen as someone who is too into the award that they received. But I’m really into it. The other thing so amazing about the star is the ceremony around it. You remember the image of a celebrity sitting in front of their star taking photos. I’m so excited for my kids to see it. I have awards, physical trophies. But this is one you must visit. I’m Hindu and we get cremated, so I’m not going to have a gravestone. So this is kind of nice.
There’s also a permanence to this, your name is forever etched in Hollywood lore, no matter what happens.
This is one of those things where I’m like, I don’t feel I deserve it, but I want to continue to live and have a career that will one day deserve it.
You were 24 when you joined “The Office.” What does that stage of your career mean to you now?
As I get older, I realize how lucky I was with that job. It was my first job from doing offoff- Broadway theater. I wasn’t in the WGA, I didn’t have health insurance. So there was just the basic needs that needed to be met that would have thrilled me. But then the idea that I would work on the show for eight years and do this intensive [deep dive] in comedy writing and comedy acting, and be around Steve Carell, Greg Daniels, B.J. Novak and Mike Schur and just learn from them for so many years … my bar was so low at that time that it just really feels like such incredible luck. It was learning how to write and acting with really wonderful people that I’m still friends with. It completely set up my career.
The show is now being rewatched by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I’m sure you’re getting recognized by young kids who weren’t alive when it began.
That’s been really lovely to see. Between my books and my TV shows, I feel like a lot of the people who are interested in what I have to say are young women, young women of color and women my age. What’s so great about “The Office” is that it includes those people, but it has a very different fan base in terms of who’s coming up to me at the airport. A 15-year-old boy will be like, “Hey, its Kelly from ‘The Office!’” They just love the show, and it’s so pure.
When I started out, the first thought of what I wanted to write for was a story about ambitious women, living in cities with disposable income. But instead, I was writing for these 12 people in an office in Scranton, Pa. You know that old saying, “You don’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.” That is what I needed, to learn how to write in the voices of people completely different than me.
And in some ways it allowed you to eventually do the kind of story you wanted to do, about a young single woman living in the city, with “The Mindy Project.”
That show, I love it so much. The comedy writers I had on that show I still continue to work with. It was one of the funniest staffs I’ve ever been in. I truly think it was ahead of its time. I don’t act that much anymore, but when I think about some of the most joyous times in my career, it was playing Mindy Lahiri. She was so unhinged, so funny and so surprising. That show got to be on the air for 117 episodes. I’m so grateful to [Disney Television Group president] Craig Erwich to this day for saving the show from Fox and letting it live on Hulu.
To be No. 1 on the call sheet and to be able to talk that much on camera was so fun and challenging. It was such a different kind of show than “The Office.” That was a huge hit and “The Mindy Project” was always struggling in the ratings. That 15-year period of doing “The Office” and “The Mindy Project” was an utter roller coaster. I think it’s given me a lot of perspective and a real sense of humor about myself and my legacy.
Tell me more about “Running Point.” What are you excited for people to see?
There’s a lot of elements of “Running Point” that will seem similar to the things I’ve written — like an ambitious woman of a certain age, single, glamorous life, and it’s set in a workplace. Jeannie Buss is one of the executive producers on the show, and she has lived such an unusual and cinematic life. She has the most theatrical family. She had to fire one of her siblings. She was dating the head coach of the Lakers.
I’m excited for people who love my shows to see Kate Hudson in this role. I’ve been working with a lot of teenagers and early twentysomethings, and that is uniquely gratifying. But I’d never written a TV show for a movie star. That was such a gift to be able to work with Kate on this. I’m really excited to show off how much I love basketball. There’s so much legitimate basketball speak in the show. We had to do so much research to make sure that it was all right.
Your company, based at Warner Bros. TV, just landed a multi-camera comedy project, “Zarna,” over at CBS. How would you describe your ambition for Kaling Intl.?
It’s plugging along nicely. I love creating shows, but it’s so much work in a very specific way. It’s so nice to be able to produce a show, but not necessarily have to open up Final Draft and write.
Darlene Hunt, who is writing that show with Zarna, has created so many shows. And Zarna is my favorite stand-up. I love to be able to give them notes on their process, but they’re the writers. Zarna is someone who I started watching during the pandemic. We became Instagram friends, and then when she started doing more stand-up and wanted to do the show, she reached out. It feels like exactly the kind of show that Kaling Intl. should be producing.
To be at Warner Bros. and doing a multi-cam, I really feel like I’m stepping into the legacy of this company that I’ve worked at for six years. The next thing is, I want to write a drama and possibly direct one.
What’s the status of “Legally Blonde 3” — or any other upcoming projects?
Dan Goor and I just finished up a draft of “Legally Blonde 3,” which I can’t talk about, but we turned it in before Christmas. I have a couple other things that are so early in their process that it would be silly to bring them up at this point. And then I’m a producer on this incredible live-action short called “Anuja,” which was just shortlisted for the Oscars. It has been incredibly fascinating seeing how that world works.
Mindy Kaling receives her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Feb. 18 at 11:30 a.m.; 6533 Hollywood Blvd.
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