Mindy Kaling Explains Why She’s Been Staying Behind the Camera

Dan Clarendon June 8, 2025, 12:57 pm

Comments

After making a name for herself as a writer and star of The Office and the creator and lead of The Mindy Project, Mindy Kaling took a step back from the spotlight. She has had some acting roles since, but she has stuck mostly to producing work, having co-created the TV shows Champions, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Never Have I Ever, The Sex Lives of College Girls and Running Point.

In fact, her most recent onscreen role came in 2023. But Kaling knows a more substantial return to acting is overdue.

“Never Have I Ever, a show literally about an Indian American family in Southern California, and if I wasn’t on that — what’s wrong with me?” Kaling said during a Paley Media Council Series conversation last week, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Kaling explained that she’s been a bit camera shy because her producing ventures have panned out well. “I think there is a part of me that feels a little superstitious,” she said. “I’m like, these seem to have gone well, and I’m not in them, so maybe I’ll wait.”

Kaling did say, however, that she misses acting and that she “would like to write or co-create a show for [herself] to act in soon.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling)

In fact, she said, it’s “unbelievably fun” and “so efficient” to be both creator and star of a TV show. “I would love to do that again. That’s the thing that maybe in the next couple years, when I launch a couple other things that are earlier in the pipeline, that would be something that would be fun to do again.”

Mindy Kaling's 'Not Suitable for Work': Everything You Need to Know About Hulu Series

It’s not like Kaling has been resting on her laurels, though. She’s also a mother of three: a 7-year-old daughter, a 4-year-old son, and a 15-month-old daughter.

At an Emmy consideration event last month, Running Point star Kate Hudson praised her boss’s work ethic during the development of the show, saying Kaling even worked through her labor.

“We had a script, like our first table read,” Hudson recalled, per People. “She’s on Zoom. She then has the baby and is sending notes, like, an hour after she has the baby. I was like, ‘Isn’t Mindy literally in labor?’ … She is a powerhouse and delivers what she says she’s going to deliver.”

So if Kaling promises another star turn on screen, it seems like she’s going to deliver!