Ever since Mindy Kaling left The Office, she's been a household name and a show runner actors deeply want to work for. But, it's been years since we've last seen Mindy on screen. During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, she revealed why.
"I think there is a part of me that feels a little superstitious," Mindy said. "I'm like, 'these seem to have gone well and I'm not in them so maybe I'll wait.'"
Mindy's career
Mindy's first television show as show runner was The Mindy Project in which she starred as OBGYN Mindy Lahiri. The series ran for six seasons and earned a cult following. In 2020, Mindy's show Never Have I Ever, which is a show about "an Indian American family in Southern California", premiered on Netflix.
She also created Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO, which starred Reneé Rapp, and Running Point on Netflix starring Kate Hudson. The actors on her shows love working with her.
"I have to say, I've fallen in love with this woman," Kate said of being on Mindy's sets. "And she's just not only so brilliant, but so trusting… she puts the best team together."
Mindy's friend and Running Point collaborator, Ike Barinholtz, once told Glamour: "She is a force. When Mindy Kaling vouches for you, people listen."
But, while she runs a tight set, Mindy didn't appear in any of these acclaimed shows.
"I miss it," Mindy shared. "I would like to write or co-create a show for me to act in soon."
Ideally, she would like to double as an actor and director next.
"I would love to do that again," she said. "That's the thing that maybe [will happen] in the next couple of years, when I launch a couple of other things that are in the pipeline."
All about her family
Aside from her very successful career, Mindy has a bustling personal life. She has three children – Katherine, seven, Spencer, four, and Anna, one. She hid two of her three pregnancies before surprising fans with the news. And two of her kids have a very famous godparent.
Mindy's lifelong friend, B.J. Novak is godfather to Katherine and Spencer.
"They have such a great relationship," Mindy told Marie Claire in 2022.
Mindy keeps her family out of the spotlight and off social media, always concealing their faces when she posts family photos. The actress always knew she wanted children and became a mother on her own terms.
"When things are hard, whenever I veer towards cynicism, my three kids are such a great reminder of the pure joy in my life," she said in an Instagram post. "I'm so lucky I live in a place where I could do this by myself, on my own timeline."