No Laughing Matter: Mindy Kaling to Receive Producers Guild of America’s Norman Lear Achievement Award
- The award recognizes a producer or producing team for their extraordinary body of work in television.
Mindy Kaling will receive the Norman Lear Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the association announced today. The award recognizes “a producer or producing team for their extraordinary body of work in television,” the PGA said. The Indian American writer, producer, author, director and actress will receive the award at the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards at The Beverly Hilton on Feb. 23, 2023.
Calling Kaling “one of the brightest voices of her generation,” PGA presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said her “immense contributions to the television comedy landscape” are prime examples that “comedy can break boundaries and push culture forward.” From “The Mindy Project” to “Never Have I Ever” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” Kaling “has proven just how much audiences have been craving funny, relatable stories about characters we’ve rarely see as television protagonists,” they said, adding that “her work producing series from diverse female perspectives that is reshaping the industry.”
Kaling said it’s an “honor to be asked to receive the Norman Lear Award, a prize named after the prolific and groundbreaking producer I am so inspired by. To be included in this prestigious group of past recipients is humbling, and I’m so grateful to the Producers Guild for this recognition.”
Kaling was 24 when she joined the eight-person writing staff of “The Office” as the only woman. During her eight seasons on the show, she served as both producer and executive producer on over 120 episodes, earning five consecutive nominations for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. She accomplished this while also starring as Kelly Kapoor, writing 26 episodes (more than any other writer), and directing two episodes. She has the barrier-breaking honor of being the first woman of color to be Emmy nominated in any writing category.
Following “The Office,” she went on to create, star in, and executive produce “The Mindy Project” which ran for six seasons, and write, produce, and star in her feature film debut “Late Night.”
She co-created and executive-produced the Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” which has been renewed for its third season. The series centers on the complicated life of Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a modern-day first-generation Indian American teenage girl. She’s an overachieving high school sophomore with a short fuse that gets her into difficult situations.
Her HBO Max/Warner Bros. TV comedy series “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” is gearing up for its second season. It is based on four roommates at Essex College, a prestigious New England university.
She is executive producing and voicing the title character in Warner Bros. Animation’s upcoming HBO Max adult animated comedy “Velma.” She is also co-writing the third installment in the “Legally Blonde” series with Dan Goor. Additionally, she has committed to re-team with Dan Goor to write and star alongside Priyanka Chopra in a comedy about an Indian American wedding under Universal.