Born on June 24, 1979 in Cambridge, Massachusetts as Vera Chokalingam, actress Mindy Kaling was educated at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols, a private school in her hometown and Dartmouth College. While in college, she became a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Dog Day Players and was also a member of the a capella group The Rockapellas. She also worked on The Dartmouth college paper's comic strip entitled "Badly Drawn Girl."
Launching an acting career in 2003, Kaling portrayed Ben Affleck in a play entitled Matt & Ben, which she also co-wrote. The play was later recognized as one of Time Magazines' Top 10 Theatrical Events of the Year. A year later, she was hired to work on the American version of the British comedy series, The Office as a writer and actor. Some of her work on The Office includes the episodes "The Injury" and "Diwali."
In talking about her play and her transition into The Office, she said, "I was playing Ben Affleck in this play I wrote, kind of an absurdist kind of short play. And [Greg Daniels] hired me from that to be a writer and actor on the show. But he didn't know in what capacity I would act on it, because there was no Indian girl character in the pilot or anything. I was excited to write -- I mean, that's all I've wanted to do was be a comedy writer -- and acting was a nice cherry on top of the sundae."
Aside from writing and acting on the television series, Kaling had her first onscreen role on The 40 Year Old Virgin, which starred her Office co-star Steve Carell. She also appeared in the romantic comedy License to Wed, starring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, and The Office's John Krasinski. She later got a role on NPR’s Fresh Air, and played the assistant of Richard Lewis on the series Curb Your Enthusiasm. In April 2006, Kaling became a guest writer in an episode of Saturday Night Live. Kaling has also starred in the web comedy series Erik the Librarian, released in 2008 under 60Frames Entertainment.
(Photo courtesy of NBC)