Mindy Kaling cements legacy with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
The multi-hyphenate entertainer became the first South Asian woman to receive the honor earlier this week
Actress Mindy Kaling received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this week.
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Words by Kahini Calcuttawalla
Is Mindy Kaling used to being first yet? With The Mindy Project in 2012, she became the first South Asian American to star in her own network show. In 2010, she was the first woman of color to be nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding comedy writing category, for The Office. And earlier this week, Kaling became the first South Asian woman to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Although Kaling is only 45 years old, this milestone has been decades in the making. The Office (U.S. version) first aired in 2005, and her character Kelly Kapoor was a revelation: a pop culture-obsessed diva who would be better as a Big Brother contestant than a customer service rep at a paper company. A junior writer on the show, Kaling was brought in to act as an outraged “ethnic” woman who slaps her culturally insensitive boss Michael Scott (Steve Carrell). Leave it to Kaling to take a single scene and run with it, ultimately creating a fan-favorite character whose one-liners are still worth quoting.
Kelly Kapoor became the prototype for Kaling’s brand of comic heroine—ambitious, lovelorn, and more than a little desperate. They’re the antithesis of the effortless, conventionally attractive white woman protagonist, but Kelly Kapoor and Dr. Mindy Lahiri are determined to be the stars of the show anyway. This palpable yearning to belong extends to her characters’ love interests, and Kaling has been criticized for only featuring white men opposite her characters.
Kaling certainly seems less concerned with societal expectations than her characters. As an entertainment professional and a single mom of three children—an especially unconventional choice for an Indian woman—she’s created her own definitions of success and family. Her longtime friend, ex-partner, and godfather of her children, B.J. Novak, presented her with the Walk of Fame star.
“I am so proud to be South Asian and I want to make my community proud of everything I do,” Kaling posted after the event. “But more importantly, I want to help usher in the next generation of South Asian stars who are already making a huge impact across the world.”
Through critically acclaimed shows like Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls, Kaling has put her money where her mouth is, centering stories on women of color whose identities don’t begin and end with their race or ethnicity. She launched her production house, Kaling International, in 2012. Since then, her work has paved the way for a new age of talent from the South Asian diaspora, platforming actors like Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Megan Suri, and Amrit Kaur.
In the course of her career, Kaling has fundamentally changed how the west sees South Asian women, and made us laugh along the way. Never one to rest on her laurels, she has an upcoming comedy series on Hulu titled Not Suitable for Work. We’ll be tuning in.
Published on February 21, 2025
Words by Kahini Calcuttawalla
Kahini Calcuttawalla (she/her) is an Indian-Canadian feature journalist and editor. A culture and lifestyle specialist, she covers all things fashion, beauty, art, travel, and food. Currently, she's based in Mumbai. Find her on Instagram @kahinii.