Mindy Kaling opens up about the pressure of representing Indian Americans

Highlights:

• Kaling said representation brings significant pressure and scrutiny.
• She has faced criticism from the Indian American community throughout her career.
• The creator said authentic representation remains deeply important to her.
• Kaling is proud of projects that many people initially doubted.
• She described her new series Not Suitable for Work as semi-autobiographical.

MINDY Kaling (pictured) said the pressure of representing the Indian American community has been one of the defining challenges of her career.

Kaling is a writer-producer and actress, known for The Office, The Mindy Project and Never Have I Ever, among other TV programmes.

Speaking on Monday (8) at The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast during the Newport Beach TV Fest, where she received the Artist of Distinction Award, Kaling reflected on the expectations that come with being one of the most visible Indian American creators in entertainment.

“My community is so starved for any kind of representation, so there’s a lot of pressure on that. If you show a certain kind of Indian person and they have different traditions than the kind of Indian person that those people knew and grew up with, that feels disappointing,” Kaling said.

She acknowledged that scrutiny from the community has been a constant throughout her two decades in the industry.

“So I’ve had to deal with that for 20 years of my career, and I can’t say that it’s easy, but I will say that that same group of people who are scrutinizing me the most are also the ones that ride for me the most.”

Kaling said creating authentic representation remains important to her, even when criticism can be frustrating.

“And, so, getting it right, particularly for the people in my community, is a thing that it is really important to me. But I get mad at them, I feel like they’re my family, where I get pissed at them too, and I wish they had some sense, or more of a sense, of what it’s taken to make it this far.

“I do think there’s some things that I have been scrutinized with that my fellow creators of shows don’t necessarily have to deal with.”

Kaling, 46, first rose to prominence on NBC’s The Office, where she worked as a writer and played Kelly Kapoor. She joined the series at age 24 as the only woman in the writers’ room and eventually wrote more episodes than any other writer on the show.

She later broke new ground with The Mindy Project, becoming the first woman of color to create, write, and star in her own network television series. The show was also the first network TV series to feature an Indian American lead character.

Looking back on her career, Kaling said she is proudest of projects that many people initially doubted. One example was Matt & Ben, the off-offBroadway play she co-wrote and performed in alongside Brenda Withers.

“The things I’m the most proud about in my career have been things that sound so strange and the most people have told me, ‘Don’t do it, I don’t get it!’”

She also highlighted Never Have I Ever and her decision to make tennis legend John McEnroe the narrator.

“The other is, I did the show called Never Have I Ever, and I had the idea of having John McEnroe be the narrator for the show because he had a temper and so did the young Indian American lead, who’s 15. I think those are the things I’m the most proud of.”

Kaling also spoke about her newest Hulu series, Not Suitable for Work, which she describes as part of a semi-autobiographical trilogy. The show is inspired by the period before her success, when she was living in Brooklyn and wondering whether her dreams would ever come true.

“The time in my life that’s most vivid is when I was not successful, but just had big dreams, and I had no access to anything, and I would go to bed every night worried that it was never going to happen.”

She said she wanted to tell a story about ambitious young adults pursuing their goals and challenge assumptions about Gen Z, a generation she believes is far more driven than it is often portrayed.