Mindy Kaling Didn't Talk Much Until She Was 15 Years Old

Mindy Kaling was recently a guest on Ellen Degeneres.  After dancing her way with sassy moves to Ellen's guest chair Ellen mentioned she and Mindy had never met before. Ellen said "we have not met before."

(Image of Mindy Kaling - The Office - NBC.com - All Rights Reserved)

Mindy said "I know, which is weird Ellen I don't know how that's possible."  She continued "I guess it's not that weird.  It's just I'm just such a big fan of yours.  So I feel entitled to have met you."

Ellen "you should have met me, you should have phoned me up and said 'I demand to meet with Ellen' because I am so in awe of what you do.  You started out as a writer on 'The Office' right?"

Mindy agreed "I started as a writer and then in the first season my boss Greg needed Steve Carell's character Michael to be slapped by someone.  He needed to offend someone and he's like 'Mindy I think you should slap him.'  So it was like the fourth time I had met him and I had to slap Steve Carell across the face."

Ellen "how was that?"  Mindy "it was hard because he wasn't offending me, he was just making me laugh, so I kept like breaking like when you can't like stay serious in a scene.  So if you look at it and he's like offending me I kept looking up there.  I can't make eye contact with him."

Ellen "right, right.  So you go from that to being on the show ('The Office'). And now you're a co-producer of the show?"

Mindy "Yeah, now I'm producing and ordering people around.  And I'm directing actually.  I directed that clip we just saw.  Yes."

Ellen "WOW.  That's impressive."

Mindy "well directing is great because you can just make yourself like the star of everything.  Like if you saw those Web episodes like it just looks like The Office is a show is about an Indian girl  and like her making her way in the big city you'd be really confused what the show is about.   But it's fine with me."

Ellen "That's hilarious.  where are you from originally?" Mindy "I'm from Cambridge, Massachusetts."

Ellen "and how long ago did you come out here?" Mindy "I moved out here in 2004"

Ellen "to write?"  Mindy "yes, to write." Ellen "and were your parents supportive of this career choice?"

Mindy "They were.  My parents, a lot of my Asian friends their parents really want them to be doctors or to go into computers.   But my parents are a different kind of snob.  They really just wanted to brag to their friends about whatever I do.  No matter what it was.  I could be on the cover of Cigar Aficionado.  They just want me to be the best cigar aficionado ever so they can hold up a magazine.  That's their thing.  Or if I was in prison, they'd want me to be the criminal ever. They're kinda interesting that way."

Ellen "good for them.  Well I saw a picture of you as a kid.  This is you at what age?"  A large photo of Mindy with very short hair and thick glasses was shown to the audience.

Mindy  "I think I'm 11."  She addressed the audience "you say 'awww' like it's cute, but that's only because you weren't me at that age.   Again, you can't tell what gender I am.  Right?"

Ellen "no you can't"

Mindy "I could have said this is my brother and you would have been." Ellen "you could have said this was is brother and then afterward you could have said after this is actually you."

Mindy "were you a cute kid?"

Ellen  "No. No. I was an OK kid, I was a very ugly baby. And then I was hideous. I was really fat and I had no hair until I was about 2 1/2 or 3.  Then I was kinda cute for a short period of time.  Then I went downhill."

Mindy  "Well you're so pretty.  I was just noticing that.  Is that inappropriate to say?"

Ellen "No, thank you.  Tell me more about me."

Mindy addressed the audience "her eyes are like."  She turned to Ellen and said "your eyes are like.  I'm sure you get this compliment all the time. They're like insane.  They're very beautiful."

Ellen "OK.  What else?"

Mindy "I think it's true.  Can I say one quick thing.  I saw you dancing with J.Lo.  I saw that she did Louboutins here. It was insane.  Like she's a great dancer and I'm a huge fan of hers. But you were like part of it at the end.  She like grabbed you at the end. I would have lost it."

Ellen "I actually danced in a video with her (Jennifer Lopez) as a joke.  What was the name of the song?  'Great Right'  It didn't end up in her video.  I went to the video shoot.  She's really sweet.  She was just being kind."

Ellen "but wait, I want to talk about you, for just a minute.  So when I see that at that age.  Were you funny?  Did you know that you were funny at that age?"

Mindy "You know, I largely didn't really talk until I was 15 years old.  I was just kinda ignored about like a chubby homosexual Indian kid.  But one thing I noticed when I was in high school with the guys.  If you were the ugliest guy in the world but if you were funny that was the great popularity leveler, you could be like the coolest guy.  I thought there was something to that."

Ellen "and so you started using humor."

Mindy "I would memorize books and test jokes on my family and they would be 'stop, you're terrible' but you know, I just kept plugging away."

Ellen "I think you are hilarious.  It's so amazing.  What a story.  A lot of people come out here and want to be a writer, but the fact that you're doing that on such a hit show.  That's fantastic."

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