Role Model Monday | Mindy Kaling

For reasons I won't disclose (including a broken tank and a lack of running water), I was in need of some level 10 distractions last night ie, the highest you can get! Usually I turn to YouTube and watch endless clips of gag reels but laughing would most definitely not have helped the situation. So after a lot of clicking around, I stumbled across the Emmy Roundtable Comedy Actresses interview conducted by the Hollywood Reporter. Featuring a few lead females from some of my current favourite shows, it was perfect distraction material.

Powder blue, messy plait? Nailed it. (source)

It was Mindy Kaling that most held my often wavering, desperate-for-the-loo attention. I've been aware of her for about a year, courtesy of E4 streaming the pretty funny but wildly addictive The Mindy Project. I'd seen her as a performer, as an actor but knew relatively little of her life as a writer (except what pops up on my Instagram feed. Kaling's posts are brilliant.) Researching this week's Role Model Monday has brought me on a bike ride round a pond journey of emotions, in the sense that I've sorted of ended up where I started, but I feel better for and my legs feel kinda toned.

If I could match anyone's career trajectory, it would be Mindy's. I have next to no desire to act(anything that involves using my mouth to project words is never going to end well) but I would love nothing more than writing for TV. It was clear to me from the Roundtable interview that Kaling is intelligent. She articulated her thoughts with comedic ease and deftly spoke her opinion without being unnecessarily judgemental. Her work on The Mindy Project is a further testament to her abilities and it was incredibly refreshing to see someone so animated about the business in which they work. Her many throwbacks to past actors and films demonstrates to me a real love of TV and film, but more importantly respect for the business so often depicted as fickle (and far worse.) I read a number of interviews whilst researching this piece and I take a lot of comfort in her attitude towards a lot of issues, actually. In one interview she's quoted as saying 'I don't deny being Indian and I don't rely on it' and I think that is such a healthy way to approach life. Some people are so hell bent on categorising everything, limiting what people can do because of how they look, how they sound, where they come from and so on. To suffer negatively from that can be especially painful. As someone of a mixed race origin who has faced jibes, abusive digs, and altogether just uneducated and inappropriate comments, you do start to feel that you are only what you look like. I would never want to deny my heritage but nor do I want to be defined by it, and it took reading someone else's attitude to really solidify my own stance.

So it's clear that I'm a fan. She often cites how her mother was a great role model and I love hearing about the closeness between a mother and daughter. I'm exceptionally close with my own mum and the relationships with both my parents are among my most cherished. Not only that, Kaling has superb style (again, check her Instagram) and she has hands down created one of the post quotable characters!

(source)

Oh and if like me, you are a bit of a TV nerd, watch the Comedy Actresses Roundtable here :)