"I was really embarrassed about that"- When Mindy Kaling opened up about being a diversity hire

Over the years, Mindy Kaling has solidified her position in the industry while also achieving some remarkable feats in the process. Over her esteemed career, the 45-year-old actress has received a Tony Award and six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, which puts her at the very top of the mountain. Moreover, she has multiple iconic roles, including her stint as Kelly Kapoor in the NBC sitcom The Office, which she also helped write.

Despite these stellar career stats, Mindy Kaling expressed her embarrassment at being a diversity hire under NBC’s diversity writing program. She admitted in a 2019 interview that she was initially embarrassed by this status but grew to accept it and even offered her insight into why she thinks a gap in acceptance still exists in the industry when it comes to minorities.

Speaking of her time in The Office, where she was a diversity hire, Kaling recalled in the interview with The Guardian in 2019:

"And for a long time I was really embarrassed about that. No one [on The Office] said anything to me about it, but they all knew and I was acutely aware of that. It took me a while to realise that I was just getting the access other people had because of who they knew,"

Speaking of the gap that still exists in the industry, she recalled how she found out that the first African American female writer on a late-night talk show was only hired in 2016. She said:

"When we started on the film, I thought, OK, things are different now. But then I met the first African American female writer on a late-night talkshow and she was only hired in, I think, 2016. And these shows are mainly made in New York City! I mean, not having an African American woman until 2016 in New York, that’s hard to do."

In this same interview, she elaborated on why she felt this gap existed.

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"I think there’s such pressure"- Mindy Kaling reveals why she feels diversity hires are not as common

Of course, things have grown to be better in the past few years for minority communities compared to the years prior, but there is still a large gap that exists in the industry, which can be seen once one digs deeper.

Mindy Kaling recalled an example from a late-night talk show, which probed the interviewer to ask why she thought this division still existed. Kaling replied:

"I think there’s such pressure when you’re creating a show to keep it on the air that people only hire those who they feel comfortable with, and for a lot of people that’s people who look exactly like them."

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why minorities are still struggling to come to the same platform as the rest, but with awareness and effort, hopefully, more talented professionals like Mindy Kaling will come to the fore.

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Mindy Kaling has not appeared in any movie since Locked Down in 2021, but she has appeared on television in more recent years in shows like Monsters at Work and Velma.