Mindy Kaling received the Norman Lear Award at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Saturday night.
The award is given to producers as recognition for their immense body of work in television. Kaling has produced several successful shows including “The Mindy Project,” “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Never Have I Ever.” In November, it was announced that she would receive the award at Saturday night’s ceremony.
During her acceptance speech, Kaling paid tribute to her parents.
“Like most people, everything goes back to parents. I’m a child of immigrants and that unexpectedly became my secret weapon,” she said, according to Deadline.
She also thanked Greg Daniels and Howard Klein, the producers of “The Office,” for allowing her to write on the show even though she had limited experience.
Kaling’s close friend and “The Office” co-star BJ Novak also gave a speech about the producer and actress before she received the award.
“The first thing I noticed about Mindy in that writers room is that she cared so much about everything,” Novak said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We were in love with each other, and we were reckless idiots, and the two of us would argue about all of these things forever grinding the writers room into a halt until we got too upset and we go to our respective offices and slammed the door where we would continue arguing over AOL and instant messenger. It was 2005.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kaling showed appreciation for “powerful people [studio exec partners] who have all believed in me, believed in the good business that is inclusive content and encouraged me to fill my productions with promising new talent, particularly women of color.”
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