Mindy Kaling can best the best of them. The star and creator of the Mindy Project doesn’t just want to be compared to other Indian comics. She wants to take on the world, reports The Independent.
I never want to be called the funniest Indian female comedian that exists,” Kaling recently told New York magazine. “I feel like I can go head-to-head with the best white, male comedy writers that are out there. Why would I want to self- categorize myself into a smaller group than I’m able to compete in?”
What else would you expect from someone who was named after the female half of the 70’s sitcom Mork and Mindy? Kaling has never made her ethnicity central to her act.
Her show can best be compared to a straight forward romantic comedy about the life of a Thirty something. The Mindy Project has attracted a large following of 35 and under women and has been renewed for a second season.
“I’m not good at anything except writing jokes,” she said. “I wasn’t good at sports, I wasn’t good at anything artsy, ever. I think there was a real worry for a while about what I would be good at. I was just this chubby little Indian kid who looked like a nerd … It wasn’t until I was in high school that I was like, ‘I guess I like writing dialogue.’ So that’s how I got into it. And I loved Saturday Night Live.”
You can read a lot more about the life and career of Mindy Kaling in The Independent.