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Exsqueeze me, but it is time for Woman Crush Wednesday, and today’s honoree is simply unanimous: our dream BFF, Mindy Kaling.
The actress, writer, and producer is a bit of a Hollywood Wonder Woman, working her way from playwright to The Office writers’ room and on-screen ensemble to creating and starring in The Mindy Project, and now, appearing on the big screen with Oprah. Um, living the dream life much, Mindy?
WHO’S THAT GAL: Mindy Kaling
WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: Mindy is the modern day role model every woman can relate to. Part of this is due to her fantastic and relatable books of essays, and part of it is because she gets to make out with hot actors on screen. Both very legit reasons, and ones we believe Mindy would be proud of. She’s not just a great writer and actress, creating entertainment for us that we are constantly quoting back to our friends and in memes and on social media, but all of that is true. We also love that she stole scenes away from Steve Carrell on The Office, and she’s had some of the funniest one-liners on The Mindy Project that make us pause the show to get all the giggles out before we can continue watching.
What’s really admirable about Mindy is that she always speaks her mind, including in her honest tweets and Instagrams, and that she’s created such an incredible place for herself in the entertainment industry, especially as an Indian woman. Her success feels like our success because she says what we’re thinking and lives what we’re dreaming. And also, she’s a true supporter of McDonald’s breakfast, and we can always get behind that.
WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Most people first became obsessed with Mindy as Kelly Kapoor on The Office, where she was not just the Ryan-obsessed fashionista of the office, but also a writer on the show. From there, she went on to create and star in The Mindy Project which is currently airing its sixth and final season on Hulu.
Mindy has appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm, the rom-coms License to Wed and No Strings Attached, and is firmly planted in the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen crew with appearances in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Five Year Engagement, This is the End, and The Night Before. She’s also voiced characters in Animals, Inside Out, Wreck-It Ralph, and Despicable Me.
Not only is Mindy an accomplished actor and writer for the screen, but she’s written two books that are just way too good to only read once, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns), and Why Not Me?.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: Mindy will pop up in the TV show Champions, which she happens to be producing as well. Oh, and 2018 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years of her career, with the release of A Wrinkle in Time movie where she will play Mrs. Who opposite Oprah, her new bestie Reese Witherspoon, and some bro named Chris Pine. And they wouldn’t even think of making the badass female-led Ocean’s Eight without her, so we can’t wait to see what she does on screen with Rihanna, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway and more of our fave gal pals. In the meantime, we’ll watch Mindy close out the final season of one of the best modern comedies in The Mindy Project. It will be sad to say goodbye to the OBGYN we actually look forward to seeing, but we can always count on our Mindy crush lasting for many more shows and movies to come.
