Kaling ’01 set to write feature film

Mindy Kaling ’01, who plays Kelly Kapoor on “The Of­fice” and is a writer for the pop­u­lar NBC com­edy, has begun work on a new pro­ject for the big screen.
Ac­cord­ing to Va­ri­ety, Kaling and fel­low “Of­fice” writer Brent For­rester are team­ing up to pen “The Low Self Es­teem of Lizzie Gille­spie,” a ro­man­tic com­edy about a woman whose self es­teem is so low that she re­signs her­self to dat­ing losers until “the hottest guy ever” comes along to sweep her off her feet.

Film stu­dio Man­date Pic­tures and John Malkovich’s pro­duc­tion com­pany Mr. Mudd — the same team be­hind “Juno” (2007) — are also on board with the pro­ject. In ad­di­tion to writ­ing and ex­ec­u­tive pro­duc­ing, Kaling will act in a small role in the film.
Ear­lier this year, Kaling signed a two-year con­tract with NBC to first de­velop and then star in her own show. Kaling seems to be fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of Tina Fey, NBC’s other comic dar­ling who has been rec­og­nized for both her writ­ing and act­ing tal­ents.