Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979), better known as
Mindy Kaling, is an
American actress and writer who stars as
Kelly Kapoor on the
NBC sitcom
The Office. Kaling is also a co-executive producer and writer of several of the Emmy Award-winning show's episodes.
Early life
Kaling was born Vera Mindy Chokalingam
[Online list of 2001 Dartmouth grads, TheDartmouth.com][Kofke-Egger, Heather. March 5, 1999. Chokalingham '01: comedy is a way of life, TheDartmouth.com] in
Cambridge, Massachusetts to
Tamil Hindu parents from India.
[Happy Diwali From 'The Office':Mindy Kaling takes center stage in episode about Hindu festival Zap2it, retrieved February 5, 2008] She graduated from
Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge in 1997. The following year, she began attending
Dartmouth College, where she was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe "The Dog Day Players" and the a cappella group "The Rockapellas", the creator of the comic strip "Badly Drawn Girl" in
The Dartmouth (the college's mainstream newspaper), as well as writing for the
Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern (the college's humor magazine) . She graduated in 2001.
[Swiss, Zach. May 23, 2006. Kaling '01 embarks on acting, writing career for 'The Office', TheDartmouth.com] In 2003, she portrayed
Ben Affleck in a play entitled "Matt & Ben", which she also co-wrote. The play was named one of
Time magazine's "Top Ten Theatrical Events of The Year".
Career
In early 2004, she was hired as a writer and performer for the
American version of
The Office. She has written several episodes for the series. Originally, executive producer
Greg Daniels wasn't sure where to use her onscreen in the series, until the point in the episode "
Diversity Day" where
Steve Carell's insensitive character
Michael Scott needed to be slapped by a minority character. In a 2007 interview with
The A.V. Club, Kaling stated that the Kelly character is "an exaggerated version of what I think the upper-level writers believe my personality is."
[ The A.V. Club, retrieved February 5, 2008] After the "
Diwali" episode, Kaling appeared with Daniels on NPR's
Fresh Air.
