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Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling is an American comedian, writer, actress and producer, best known for playing Kelly Kapoor on The Office and for creating and starring in The Mindy Project. She built one of the busiest careers in US television through her company Kaling International, creating hits including Never Have I Ever, The Sex Lives of College Girls and Running Point.

By · datastats · Updated July 14, 2026
Mindy Kaling

Who is Mindy Kaling?

Mindy Kaling is an American comedian, writer, actress and producer, and one of the most prolific creators in modern US television. Born Vera Mindy Chokalingam on June 24, 1979 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Indian immigrant parents, she grew up outside Boston and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001 before moving to New York to try comedy. She broke through with an off-Broadway play in which she played Ben Affleck, and that visibility helped land her a job on a new NBC sitcom.

That show was The Office, where from 2005 to 2013 Kaling played the boy-crazy, celebrity-obsessed Kelly Kapoor. Just as importantly, she was one of the writers’ room’s most productive voices, scripting many of the series’ favourite episodes and eventually producing. The experience turned her into a creator in her own right: in 2012 she launched The Mindy Project, a romantic-comedy sitcom she created, wrote and starred in as an OB-GYN looking for love, which ran for six seasons.

Since then Kaling has built a television empire through her company Kaling International. She co-created the coming-of-age comedy Never Have I Ever (2020-2023), the campus comedy The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-2025) and the sports comedy Running Point (2025), while continuing to write and produce across film and streaming. She also co-wrote the heist film Ocean’s 8 and has developed a Legally Blonde prequel series, alongside best-selling memoirs such as Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and Why Not Me?.

Away from work, Kaling lives in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles and is a mother of three. She has been notably private about her family, declining to discuss her children’s paternity, and has spoken about raising them on her own terms. At 47, she remains one of the defining comic voices of her generation and a rare writer-performer who has turned a supporting sitcom role into a sprawling, self-made career. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb, Hello, People.

People also ask

Mindy Kaling lives in the Hancock Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles, California, in a home she bought in 2016 and renovated with designer Katie Ridder. She has been Los Angeles-based for her television career; her exact private address is not public. Sources: Hello, Closer Weekly.

Mindy Kaling is American. She was born Vera Mindy Chokalingam on June 24, 1979 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Indian immigrant parents, and is of Indian (Tamil and Bengali) descent. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb.

Mindy Kaling was born on June 24, 1979, which makes her 47 years old in July 2026. She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2001. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb.

Mindy Kaling is approximately 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) tall. Sources: IMDb.

She is best known for playing Kelly Kapoor on the US version of The Office (2005-2013), where she was also a writer and producer, and for creating and starring in her own sitcom The Mindy Project (2012-2017). She later created a string of hit series, including Never Have I Ever, The Sex Lives of College Girls and Running Point. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb.

Through her company Kaling International, Kaling created the Netflix comedies Never Have I Ever (2020-2023), The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-2025) and the basketball comedy Running Point (2025), and she has continued developing new series into 2026. She co-wrote the film Ocean's 8 and is behind a Legally Blonde prequel series. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb.

Yes. Mindy Kaling is a mother of three: a daughter, Katherine, born in 2017, a son, Spencer, born in 2020, and a third child born in 2024. She has consistently chosen to keep her children's paternity and family details private, and it would be inappropriate to speculate. Sources: Hello, People.

Yes. She has written best-selling comic memoirs, including Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (2011) and Why Not Me? (2015), both drawing on her life and career in comedy. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb.

She played Kelly Kapoor, the boy-obsessed, pop-culture-loving customer service representative at Dunder Mifflin, from 2005 to 2013. Behind the scenes she was one of the show's most prolific writers and a producer, and she wrote some of its best-loved episodes. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb.

Mindy Kaling graduated from Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school in New Hampshire, in 2001, where she studied playwriting and performed in comedy and improv groups before moving into television. Sources: Wikipedia, Dartmouth.

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