Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979),[dubious â€" discuss]
known professionally as Mindy Kaling (/ˈkeɪlɪŋ/), is an American
actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She first gained recognition
starring as Kelly Kapoor in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005â€"2013),
for which she also served as a writer, executive producer, and
director. For her work on the series, she was nominated for a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and
five times for Outstanding Comedy Series. Kaling gained wider
attention for creating, producing and starring in the Fox comedy
series The Mindy Project (2012â€"2017). She created the NBC sitcom
Champions (2018), also appearing in five episodes, the Hulu miniseries
Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019), and the Netflix comedy-drama
series Never Have I Ever (2020).Kaling's film career includes voice
work in Despicable Me (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), and Inside Out
(2015). She had roles in comedy films, such as The Night Before
(2015), Ocean's 8 (2018), and Late Night (2019), the lattermost of
which she also wrote and produced. Her memoirs, Is Everyone Hanging
Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) (2011) and Why Not Me? (2015),
reached The New York Times Best Seller list.Vera Mindy Chokalingam was
born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to father Avu Chokalingam, an
architect, and mother Swati Chokalingam (née Roysircar), an
obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN). Kaling's parents are from India
and met while working at the same hospital in Nigeria. Her father, a
Tamil raised in Chennai (Madras), was overseeing the building of a
wing of the hospital, and her mother, a Bengali in Mumbai, was working
as an OB/GYN. The family immigrated to the United States in 1979, the
same year Kaling was born. Kaling's mother died of pancreatic cancer
in 2012.Kaling has said she has never been called Vera, her first
name, but has been referred to as Mindy since her mother was pregnant
with her while her parents were living in Nigeria. They were already
planning to move to the United States and wanted, Kaling said, a "cute
American name" for their daughter, and liked the name Mindy from the
TV show Mork & Mindy. The name Vera is, according to Kaling, the name
of the "incarnation of a Hindu goddess." Kaling graduated from
Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, in 1997.
The following year, she entered Dartmouth College, where she was a
member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Dog Day Players and
the a cappella group The Rockapellas, was the creator of the comic
strip Badly Drawn Girl in The Dartmouth (the college's daily
newspaper), and was a writer for the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern (the
college's humor magazine).[citation needed]
known professionally as Mindy Kaling (/ˈkeɪlɪŋ/), is an American
actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She first gained recognition
starring as Kelly Kapoor in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005â€"2013),
for which she also served as a writer, executive producer, and
director. For her work on the series, she was nominated for a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and
five times for Outstanding Comedy Series. Kaling gained wider
attention for creating, producing and starring in the Fox comedy
series The Mindy Project (2012â€"2017). She created the NBC sitcom
Champions (2018), also appearing in five episodes, the Hulu miniseries
Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019), and the Netflix comedy-drama
series Never Have I Ever (2020).Kaling's film career includes voice
work in Despicable Me (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), and Inside Out
(2015). She had roles in comedy films, such as The Night Before
(2015), Ocean's 8 (2018), and Late Night (2019), the lattermost of
which she also wrote and produced. Her memoirs, Is Everyone Hanging
Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) (2011) and Why Not Me? (2015),
reached The New York Times Best Seller list.Vera Mindy Chokalingam was
born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to father Avu Chokalingam, an
architect, and mother Swati Chokalingam (née Roysircar), an
obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN). Kaling's parents are from India
and met while working at the same hospital in Nigeria. Her father, a
Tamil raised in Chennai (Madras), was overseeing the building of a
wing of the hospital, and her mother, a Bengali in Mumbai, was working
as an OB/GYN. The family immigrated to the United States in 1979, the
same year Kaling was born. Kaling's mother died of pancreatic cancer
in 2012.Kaling has said she has never been called Vera, her first
name, but has been referred to as Mindy since her mother was pregnant
with her while her parents were living in Nigeria. They were already
planning to move to the United States and wanted, Kaling said, a "cute
American name" for their daughter, and liked the name Mindy from the
TV show Mork & Mindy. The name Vera is, according to Kaling, the name
of the "incarnation of a Hindu goddess." Kaling graduated from
Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, in 1997.
The following year, she entered Dartmouth College, where she was a
member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Dog Day Players and
the a cappella group The Rockapellas, was the creator of the comic
strip Badly Drawn Girl in The Dartmouth (the college's daily
newspaper), and was a writer for the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern (the
college's humor magazine).[citation needed]
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