Mindy Kaling Biography
Summary
"Vera Mindy Chokalingam" (born June 24, 1979), better known as "Mindy Kaling", is an American actress, stand-up comedian, 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 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Tamil Hindu parents from India. 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', as well as the creator of the comic strip 'Badly Drawn Girl' in "The Dartmouth" college newspaper. She graduated in 2001. 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.' After the 'Diwali' episode, Kaling appeared with Daniels on NPR's "Fresh Air".
Kaling played Richard Lewis's assistant in a 2005 episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and in April 2006 she was a guest writer for one episode of "Saturday Night Live". Kaling's first film role was in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", which starred Steve Carell. She then made an appearance in "Unaccompanied Minors" as the waitress. In 2007, her standup comedy was featured on the CD "Comedy Death-Ray". Kaling writes about shopping in a blog called 'Things I Bought That I Love'.
In April 2009, Kaling was featured in Entertainment Weekly's list of the 10 Funniest Actresses in Hollywood. In May 2009, NBC signed Kaling to a two-year, seven-figure contract in which she will develop and star in a new comedy while continuing to write, produce, and act in "The Office".
In 2009, Kaling criticized the location of a Las Vegas frozen custard stand on Craig Ferguson's The Late Late Show. After she called the area around the Luv-it frozen custard stand 'the most dangerous and sketchy neighborhood I've ever been to in my entire life,' downtown Las Vegas home owners and denizens took offense and started a Facebook campaign protesting Kaling.
External links
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Mindy Kaling.
