Mindy Kaling Books in Order

If you’re new to Mindy Kaling’s writing: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) → Why Not Me?
If you want her Hollywood and work stories: Why Not Me? → Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
If you’re curious about motherhood and identity: Kind of Hindu → Help Is On the Way → Once Upon a Time in Silver Lake
If you relate to social anxiety and friendships: Please Like Me [But Keep Away] → Searching for Coach Taylor → Big Shot
If you’re interested in her early stage work: Matt & Ben

Mindy Kaling is a writer, actor, and producer who has built a career out of turning her own obsessions and insecurities into sharp comedy. Many people first met her as Kelly Kapoor on the American version of The Office, where she was also one of the show’s busiest writers. Since then she has created hit series, written bestselling books, and become a familiar voice in both live‑action films and animation.

She was born Vera Mindy Chokalingam in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1979, to Indian parents who had emigrated from Nigeria to the United States the year she was born. Her father worked as an architect, and her mother was an obstetrician‑gynecologist. Growing up, she watched a lot of television sketch comedy and classic sitcoms, noticing that families that looked like hers were rarely on screen. That mix of feeling inside and outside the culture would later fuel much of her writing.

Kaling attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols School and then Dartmouth College, where she majored in playwriting. At Dartmouth she threw herself into campus comedy life, joining the improv troupe Dog Day Players and the all‑female a cappella group the Rockapellas. She also wrote and drew a comic strip called Badly Drawn Girl for the student paper, an early sign that she liked turning daily awkwardness into jokes.

While still in college she interned on a late‑night talk show, getting a first look at how professional writers’ rooms worked. After graduating in 2001, she moved to New York City with friends and pieced together a life doing stand‑up, temp jobs, and tiny theater projects. With her college friend Brenda Withers she developed Matt & Ben, a scrappy two‑hander that imagines how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck really wrote Good Will Hunting. The play became a Fringe Festival hit, ran off‑Broadway, and put her on the radar of television producers.

That break led to The Office. Hired at 24, Kaling was initially the only woman and the only person of color in the writers’ room. She quickly became one of its most prolific writers, eventually producing the show and earning an Emmy nomination for co‑writing the wedding episode “Niagara.” At the same time, her turn as Kelly Kapoor — chatty, romantic, and pop‑culture obsessed — made her a fan favorite.

After nearly a decade on The Office, Kaling created, wrote, produced, and starred in The Mindy Project, playing an obstetrician navigating messy relationships and a demanding job. It was one of the first American network comedies created by and starring a South Asian woman. She has since co‑created other series centered on young women, including the coming‑of‑age comedy Never Have I Ever and the college ensemble The Sex Lives of College Girls, as well as later projects like the sports‑world comedy Running Point.

Alongside television, Kaling has built a steady writing career on the page. Her first memoir, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), blends childhood stories, early career missteps, and sharp opinions on friendship and romance. Why Not Me? continues the story through her years running a TV show, reflecting on body image, ambition, and the strange rituals of Hollywood. In her third collection, Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes), she writes more intimately about single motherhood, grief for her late mother, faith, and the push‑pull between craving attention and wanting to hide.

Her work has been recognized with multiple Emmy nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of The Office ensemble, and major honors such as inclusion in the Time 100 list, a National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Through it all she has kept a steady focus on telling funny, grounded stories about women who want a lot from life and aren’t shy about saying so.

Today Kaling splits her time between writing rooms, producing new projects through her own company, and raising her three children. She remains close friends and collaborators with fellow writer‑actor B. J. Novak, often joking that their relationship defies easy labels. In her books, shows, and essays, she keeps returning to the same questions: how to work hard, love deeply, and stay yourself, even when the spotlight is very bright.