‘The Office’ and ‘Mindy Project’ Star Mindy Kaling Reveals Why She Hasn’t Been Acting

Mindy Kaling, once a ubiquitous comedy star, has been largely absent on screen for some time now.

While she’s created and written for several television shows, like Never Have I Ever, Running Point, and The Sex Lives of College Girls, her presence in front of the camera has taken a backseat.

Her last film role was in 2021’s Locked Down, and her last TV appearance was in a 2023 cameo role in her own series TSLOCG.

The former star of The Office said during a recent panel that she doesn’t cast herself in her own work due to a long-held superstition. That superstition is why she didn’t appear at all in Never Have I Ever, a successful Netflix series that was partially inspired by her childhood.

“A show literally about an Indian American family in Southern California, and if I wasn’t on that—what’s wrong with me?” she said while speaking at the Paley Media Council Series. “I think there is a part of me that feels a little superstitious. I’m like, these seem to have gone well and I’m not in them so maybe I’ll wait.”

While she is enjoying being a mom to her three children, she did confess to the audience that she may return to acting soon because “I miss it.” She plans to write or co-create a series for herself to appear in soon, because pulling double duty as star and writer is “unbelievably fun and it’s so efficient.”

“I would love to do that again,” she said. “That’s the thing that maybe in the next couple years, when I launch a couple other things that are earlier in the pipeline, that would be something that would be fun to do again.”

Her current comedy series, the basketball-focused sports comedy Running Point, is available to stream now on Netflix. It was recently renewed for a second season.