-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-nominated actress,
producer, and "New York Times" best-selling writer
you know from "The Office" and "The Mindy Project."
She stars in the "Monsters, Inc."
spinoff series, "Monsters at Work."
New episodes are available Wednesdays on Disney+.
Let's take a look.
-You work here? When did you graduate?
-College, yeah, that was an interesting detour.
Too much of a commitment.
Not really the whole regimented, stuffed shirt,
college scene type of gal.
Blah. Well, what have you been up to?
-Graduating from college.
-Good for you! -Yeah. It's great.
-Except for the loan debt, am I right? Ka-ching!
For you it'd probably be like, "ka-ching, ka-ching,
ka-ching, ka-ching!" 'Cause you graduated.
For me it was like, "ka-ching."
-Please welcome back to the show our friend Mindy Kaling.
♪♪
Hi! -Hi, everyone.
It's great to see you.
-Welcome back. -It's so good to be here.
♪♪
This is so nice.
-It is so nice to have you here.
-It's so great to be here. -This is very exciting.
This television show takes place,
like, right after the movie ends.
-Yes.
-Even though the movie was 20 years ago.
-Yes.
-That's a pretty fun way to pick things up.
-Yeah, I loved the movie. I was obsessed with it.
And there's no female characters in the first one.
-Yeah. -Wait, no, that's not true.
That's not -- That's a lie.
I just instantly -- -You opened with a lie.
-I instantly thought of two characters.
I was about to make this big, political point
about how exciting it was.
And I can name three characters that are female.
-You already got up to three? -Yeah.
-You said zero, and then you said two,
and now you're up to three. -Now I can name three.
So I guess it's not that exciting that I'm in the show.
-It is exciting. [ Laughter ]
I think it is still exciting.
But less exciting. I mean, certainly,
I think if we had remembered that thing about --
-Why would a person come on a show
with a fact that's not correct? You know what it was?
I wanted to come in and make a statement.
-Yeah. -I wanted to be like,
"I'm breaking barriers with this show."
-I will tell, sitting here, I was thrilled.
-Right?
-I was like, "Now this is good TV."
-I was like, "I am the first woman of color
that's ever been in an animated movie or TV show.
-Yeah. -And it's a lie.
-It's a lie. -It's still special though,
because my character is shaped like a neck pillow.
-Yeah. That's a first.
-Yeah. -You're the first --
you might be the first person -- human to voice a neck pillow.
-As a woman of color, it's so important...
-Oh, this is good. This is good.
Lean into this. Oh, this is good.
-...to take roles where you're multiple colors.
You produce "The Amber Ruffin Show." You know what it is.
-I know exactly what it is.
-Hey, congratulations, by the way.
-Thank you. I'm the first white male producer.
[ Laughter ]
-We're just breaking barriers on this show.
And I -- I think the show is so funny.
-She's amazing, right? -Yeah.
-It's great. -It's so -- I love --
I love the show. I love the bits.
She's just so natural.
-I pretty -- All I do is let her use this studio.
That's about it. -[ Laughs ]
-It's all her and her incredible staff.
-Well, it's really nice. -I want to ask,
'cause I'm always fascinated by this, when --
'cause you have a 3 1/2-year-old?
-Yes. -And you have a 10-month-old.
-Yes. -And the 3 1/2-year-old,
they might watch a show like this.
And do they and then do they enjoy
when they hear their mom's voice?
-Yeah, she loves it. -Oh, that's great.
-Well, 'cause, I think a lot of people,
when they do these things,
their kids are like "No, don't tell me."
But she's already like driven crazy with power.
She's like, "That's my mom." -Yeah.
And does she say stuff like,
"Did you get points on the merch?"
-[ Laughs ] No, I wish.
I wish she was that helpful. I wish she was that helpful.
No, but she's so excited.
I have to say this is the first trip
I've taken in two years.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And I came to New York City, and I'm like --
it's just -- I'm such a basic, as it turns out.
-How so?
-Just, like, the instant I came here, I was like,
"I got to get a New York slice."
And I took a selfie of me with a New York slice.
When we came to this building, 30 Rock,
a place I've been many times. -Many times.
-I've been on this show probably six times.
And I was like, "Got to get a picture in front of 30 Rock."
-[ Laughs ] -So, and it's just like --
and every moment I'm just, like, a real basic.
-But that's good. Don't you think?
-Oh, no.
I did a thing in Central Park where I jumped up in the air.
-No, that's bad.
-And had my friend take a photo of it.
-'Cause you're recognizable.
-Yeah, and I just -- It's this exuberance
of being let out of my home.
-But that -- I mean, there is something nice,
'cause you spent a lot of time in New York over the years.
-Yeah. -And, you know, I've talked to
a few people like you, that, you know, are L.A.-based now.
And it's been two years since they've been back in the city.
And it's a really fun place to come back to.
-It's a really fun place.
-We were talking about your kids.
And I'm wondering, like, did you watch --
You strike me as someone who maybe was a little precocious
and wasn't, like, watching kids' shows when you were a kid.
-So, when I was a kid -- Well, first of all,
all the shows that I liked, I can't even say I like anymore.
-Like what? -I liked "The Cosby Show."
-No, you can now. He's out. -He's gone.
-Yeah, they let him out of jail. He's good.
-Oh, I can? It's good now? -Yeah, yeah, he's back in.
-So everyone likes him again?
-He did his time. He's back in.
Everybody's like, "He's great." -He's great.
[ Laughter ] You're such a good friend.
Thanks for telling me that that's cool.
-I mean, look, two months ago, I'd be like, "Mindy."
But, now, I'm like, "He's out. It's good."
I believe 100% in our legal system.
[ Laughter ] If you're in, you're out.
If you're out, you're in.
-That's really good. -Yeah.
-So I like -- So, I used to love "The Cosby Show."
And then, you know, as you get more successful
and people ask you, you have to be like,
"No, I loved PBS 'Frontline,'" 'cause you have to seem smarter.
But, you know, I like dumb stuff.
But when I -- I remember though,
there was a time when I was like 13, 14,
when I was that nerd that would get --
Remember, like, "Premiere" magazine?
-Yes, I was the same way.
I mean, I'm older than you, but I think in college,
when you were that age,
and I was in college or out of college,
but, like, I loved reading those magazines.
-And just, like, I'd go to, like, the --
I went to go see movies like --
like, I'd go to see the movie "Kids."
Do you remember when that first came out?
-Yes. -And that, like, was very hard
as a 14-year-old to get into.
Or "Welcome to the Dollhouse."
So, all this, like, dark stuff.
And, I just want -- I -- I was just a n--
I want my kid to just be normal, athletic, popular,
not care about -- A 14-year-old shouldn't be like,
"I must see the next Todd Solondz movie."
-Right, exactly. -Right?
-Yeah, I don't -- I'm very --
I feel like -- You know my wife, Alexi,
and I think she knows exactly what she wants
to take from her life and give to our boys,
whereas, I'm, like, judging every single thing.
I'm like, "Was that thing good
that I liked that thing, or was it bad?"
And, so, I'm very -- I just kind of can't decide
what to give them yet. -Yeah.
-I'm even, like, questioning Roald Dahl books,
'cause, like, you know I got a 5 1/2-year-old.
I'm like, "So I can't remember.
Are those things going to be scary?
Is that going to freak them out?"
-I know. And I was like --
Yeah. No, I'm the same way.
And, I'm always, like, inventing, like,
legacies and traditions that --
but it makes you -- it's kind of nice
'cause your kids just look at you, and you're like, "Oh, I --
They just trust me." -Right.
-"This is a real thing now," which is nice.
-Speaking of a legacy, you are doing
a spinoff Velma show, from "Scooby-Doo."
-Yes. -And you'll be playing Velma.
What was the response like when this news came out?
-Okay, so, when it was announced that I was going
to do the voice of Velma,
people were very supportive and happy on Twitter.
And so I felt great.
Because these are really intense fans, you know?
-Yes. -Cartoon, comic book, that fans,
those are huge fans. You know well.
You've produced animated shows before.
And especially, like, a legacy show like this.
So, it's like, "Oh, this is great."
And, then, it was announced about a month ago
that the Velma character would be reimagined as South Asian.
-Mm-hmm. -And people were not happy.
-They weren't happy with the change?
-They were not happy.
There was a lot of, like, "So, not Velma."
Like, those kind of tweets. -Right.
-"Not the classic Velma that I'm always thinking about."
And I just -- First of all, I didn't know
that she elicited such strong reactions in either direction.
-I think Velma the character would be,
like, flattered to know.
I think she probably --
in the "Scooby-Doo" universe, she probably thought
no one was paying attention to her at all.
-Well, it's like, she's such a great character.
She's so smart.
And I just couldn't understand how --
-She watched "Frontline."
-Now, she is someone who's watching "Frontline."
-Yeah. -How this --
how people couldn't imagine a really smart,
nerdy girl with terrible eyesight
and loved to solve mysteries could not be Indian.
-[ Laughing ] Right. -Like, there are Indian nerds.
It shouldn't be a surprise to people.
But people are like, "No, no, no."
And so, yeah, so, I think not -- By the way,
this is a small percentage of people.
But it really made me think like,
"Okay, we got to be really careful with this character,"
which we will be, 'cause we really love her.
-Yes, I have no doubt about that.
-And she's gonna have great adventures.
-You got to do something else that was very nice,
which you're producing a show.
It's in second season now.
Is it "Never Would I Ever?" -"Never Have I Ever."
-"Never Have I Ever," excuse me.
And this is -- I'm fascinated by this,
because you are making a modern high school show.
-Mm-hmm. -And I think --
You remember what your high school was like.
I remember what my high school was like,
but I am also very cognizant of the fact
that it's totally different now. -Yes.
-So how much work did you have to do to make it feel
like a genuine high school show for today?
-Okay, so, I thought -- I think of myself
as a young person, young energy, that young people would like.
You know, and so I didn't think it would be that hard.
But then when you're making these shows --
this is going to make me sound ancient --
everything just is so fast now.
The lingo is so fast.
TikTok trends go by so quickly, that, like,
I would be there -- I'd be like,
"Oh, the song that we score this to should be R.E.M.
or Counting Crows. That's cool, right?"
And it's just --
So we have a lot of -- which is nice about the show,
is we have a lot of really young writers.
-Yeah. -And we have, like --
we let the actors help us too.
-That's great. -Because it's really --
-Because, I guess, yeah, if you're a young actor today,
the last thing you want to do is be in a show that's inauthentic.
That's not going to respond --
your fans aren't going to respond to that.
So that's good that they're helping.
-It is good.
-It is always just such a delight to have you here.
-I have to leave? -Yeah.
Time's up.
-You're throwing me out? -That's it.
You did great.
And if that thing in the beginning you said
was true, we would have kept you around.
[ Laughter ] -I'm such a basic that I
want to take a selfie here. -We can do that.
-I don't have my -- -Just not on camera.
-Not on camera. -New episodes of
"Monsters at Work"
are available Wednesdays on Disney+,
and "Never Have I Ever" is streaming on Netflix.