Actor, director, producer, and writer, Mindy Kaling has many strings to her bow and has been a prominent face in comedy for the past 20 years. The 43-year-old rose to prominence on the US Office as Kelly Kapoor and has continued to climb ever since.
Mother-of-two Kaling appears on the third episode of Meghan Markle 's podcast Archetypes to chat about motherhood as a single parent. The episode description reads: "Meghan speaks candidly with Mindy Kaling who opens up in an unprecedented conversation about the joys, challenges, and stigmas of her life as a single, unmarried woman - plus her decision to start a family on her own."
In 2017, Kaling gave birth to a little girl named Katherine Swati then three years later she had a boy named Spencer - the father of her children has never been revealed. The writer and director has been private about this aspect of her life so this interview provides insight into a previously undiscussed aspect of her life.
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Who is Mindy Kaling?
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 24, 1979 to her architect father and obstetrician/gynaecologist mother, Kaling attended a private school in the town. Her parents are originally from India but actually met in Nigeria and moved to the US the year their daughter was born.
Her full name is actually Vera Mindy Chokalingam but Kaling said from an early age she was called Mindy instead, after American sitcom Mork & Mindy. She started acting in a drama troupe while at Dartmouth College before landing an internship with Conan O’Brien’s talk show.
Her degree at Dartmouth was in Classics and she studied Latin while there but in 2018 she also received an honorary doctorate from the college. The American actress is also a 1% owner of Swansea City football club and in an interview with Lorraine in 2018 she shared that Oprah Winfrey had inspired her to invest.
She remains close with Office co-star BJ Novak, who was her on-screen love interest in the show and her ongoing collaborator in many projects. While the pair dated on and off during the show they are not together, although Novak is godfather to both of Kaling’s children.
What has Mindy Kaling been in?
The Office is where Kaling began to be recognised as Kelly but many people don’t know that she was also a writer for much of the show. When she joined the writing staff, she was the only woman in that team of eight.
She went on to develop her own show, The Mindy Project, which forced her to leave the Office in season eight apart from guest starring appearances. Kaling took the lead role in the show which ran from 2012 to 2017, and was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world during this time.
Kaling is known for writing, starring in, and directing sitcoms which reveal the experience of Indian families in America. The latest of these is the Netflix original show Never Have I Ever, which shows the life of teenager Devi as she adjusts to life after her father’s death. It has received good reviews and praise for breaking stereotypes.
She has also lent her voice to the film Wreck it Ralph as Taffyta Muttonfudge, as well as voicing Disgust in Inside Out. Kaling also appears in the live action film A Wrinkle in Time as Mrs Who.
Over the years, Kaling has appeared in a number of feature films, including Ocean’s Eight, The Five-Year Engagement and The 40 Year-Old Virgin. She is set to star in the third instalment of the much loved Legally Blonde franchise as well as a Scooby-Doo spin-off aimed at adults called Velma, where she will star as the titular character.
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