NRI PROFILE
46
Kaling devised her stage
name after discovering while
doing stand-up comedy that
emcees would have trouble
pronouncing her last name,
Chokalingam, and sometimes
made jokes about it. She
toured solo as well as with
Craig Robinson before he
was on The Office.
In August 2002, Kaling
portrayed Ben Affleck in an
off-Broadway play called Matt
& Ben, which she co-wrote
with her best friend from
college, Brenda Withers -
who played Matt Damon.
The Office
In 2004, when The Office
producer Greg Daniels was
working to adapt The Office
from the BBC TV series of
the same name, he hired
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Kaling as a writer-performer
after reading a spec script she
wrote.
When Kaling joined The Office,
she was 24 years old and was
the only woman on a staff of
eight. She took on the role
of character Kelly Kapoor,
debuting in the series’s second
episode, “Diversity Day.”
Kaling directed The Office
webisode The 3rd Floor. She
directed the Season 6 episode
titled “Body Language,”
which marked her television
directorial debut.
Her contract was set to expire
at the end of Season 7. On
September 15, 2011, she
signed a new contract to stay
with the show for Season 8 and
was promoted to full executive
producer. Her Universal
Television contract included
a development deal for a
new show (eventually titled
The Mindy Project), in which
she appears as an actress
and contributes as a writer.
Kaling left the series after
the ninth season episode
“New Guys”. However, she
returned to guest star in the
final episode of the series.
Kaling and her fellow writers
and producers of The
Office were nominated five
consecutive times for the
Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Comedy Series.
In 2010, she received a
nomination for Outstanding
Writing in a Comedy Series
with Daniels for the episode,
“Niagara.”
The Mindy Project