00:00Today, Mindy Kaling Day in Hollywood!
00:10The mic is yours.
00:20Thank you so much, Nivea, I'm so in awe of you, I'm so honored you're here, Eric Garcetti,
00:27all of our honored guests that came from so far, thank you so much, B.J., thank you, fun
00:36fact, my daughter calls B.J. Uncle Fopo, I have no idea why that is, but he's such an
00:44important and integral part of my family that sometimes I forget the reason that I know
00:48him is because we work together professionally, and I'm as starstruck by him now, at age 29,
00:56as I was when I first met you, at 24.
01:01I love you.
01:02My friend, Baron Holtz, who's also here today, it's his birthday, actually, so thank you,
01:07he always says that whenever anything good happens, he says to me, take it in, men, take
01:13it in, be in the moment.
01:15And I think that I am physically incapable of taking things in.
01:21I don't know how to be in the moment, I just don't know.
01:24I'm always in the moment after the moment, regretting what I could have said in the moment,
01:30or I'm before the moment, and I'm scared of the moment, and I'm sort of hyper-preparing
01:34for the moment, but this is one of the times where I'm just going to force myself to just
01:39be in the moment.
01:41I'm so happy.
01:43I love recognition.
01:47And this is just incredibly nice.
01:50Thank you to the city of Los Angeles.
01:52Thank you to Warner Brothers, my family, the incredible Channing Dungey, who has fought
01:59some major fights with me.
02:02She's texting me from Hawaii on vacation over something at 11 o'clock at night, the Hollywood
02:08Chamber of Commerce, everyone who made this happen, and anyone who's tuning in right now
02:14instead of at school or working, I love that for you.
02:18I'm Hindu, and we practice cremation, which is a beautiful tradition that my ancestors
02:24have done for thousands of years, and so will I, but also I'm obsessed with legacy.
02:30So sometimes I get disappointed that I won't have a grave, but this, this is so much better
02:35than a grave.
02:39I am so grateful to the fans of my work, and to the audiences who got me here, who believed
02:46in me enough to think that I actually was a star, who watched my shows, even if their
02:50boyfriends said, that looks lame, or they read a review that says, we liked the first
02:56two seasons, but the third one fell off.
02:58I'm grateful to anyone who could just watch me in a movie or pick up my book of essays
03:03and wonder what's on my mind.
03:06I'm incredibly grateful to anyone who took a chance on me, and many of those people are
03:11here today, Bela Bajaria, who's kind of my fairy godmother, Craig Irwick, who's been
03:17my fairy godfather several times, and of course, of course, Greg Daniels.
03:24Greg discovered me, like in the good old-fashioned way that you discover someone.
03:30He didn't just turn on his phone and watch me in a TikTok, he had to like sit in a black
03:35box theater and watch a play, ugh, it was terrible.
03:39And that's how I got my big break, which is on The Office.
03:43And then, there is the great Howard Kline, who has been my creative partner and my manager
03:53for over 20 years, and he has held my hand through every success and every heartbreak.
03:59He and Nancy, his wife, are like my family.
04:01Howard took a chance on me as a staff writer, and he believed in me, but you know what's
04:05more important?
04:06He believed that he could one day make money off me.
04:10And you know what?
04:11That means more.
04:13That is the real compliment.
04:17I want to acknowledge my collaborators, who I'm lucky enough to consider my close friends.
04:21If you can write a movie or make a TV show with someone, at the end of it, you still
04:25want to have dinner with them, and you're not in a protracted legal dispute with them,
04:29I think that's pretty good.
04:31And there's several of them here today, Lang, Tracy, Ike, Dave, Warbs, Charlie, Dan, Akshara,
04:38I love you guys.
04:40Your brilliance is really why I'm here.
04:42And sure, there's probably like a group chat going on where you're talking about me, but
04:48you know what?
04:49I don't know.
04:50It won't hurt me.
04:51And also, if you ever do mess with me, you'll be getting a letter from my attorney, PJ Shapiro,
04:55who's also here.
04:57Love you, PJ.
04:59I really enjoy when people call me a multi-hyphenate.
05:03But really, it's only possible because of my reps, Kevin, Ryan, Maha, Joe, Rick, Michael,
05:11and my publicist, Katie and Morgan.
05:14I love that I can create a TV show, act in a cool movie, do a pharmaceutical ad for psoriasis
05:20medication, and then head to fashion week.
05:22And you know what?
05:23That's versatility.
05:24So thank you.
05:27My two oldest friends are here, Jocelyn and Julia, whom I adore.
05:33They knew me before hair extensions and lash extensions and trips to Korea to get calf
05:39extensions, which haven't worked, by the way.
05:41I'm still pretty short.
05:43And they knew me when this was all hypothetical.
05:46And they just listened to me strategizing like a crazy person in dorm rooms and middle
05:51school hallways.
05:52But they were the ones that said, men, I think you could actually do this.
05:57Kate the Great, Linny, Caroline, you guys keep my life actually afloat.
06:01And I can't even begin to know how to thank you.
06:05I remember as a kid watching messy TV with my mom and my dad.
06:10We'd watch Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld.
06:13And my whole family came together for it.
06:15My mom would come back from the hospital where she worked really long days delivering babies
06:20as an OBGYN.
06:21And my dad would have just driven two to three hours back from his job site in Connecticut.
06:27And despite how challenging the days were, we would all sit together at night and watch
06:31it to come.
06:33It was more than entertainment for us.
06:35It was our way of relaxing.
06:36We could put down our defenses from hard days and just be together.
06:41I find it so powerful, that kind of storytelling on TV, how it was able to bring us together
06:47when words failed us or just took too much energy.
06:51I think it's remarkable.
06:53I think it's so remarkable how many connections that you can make by sharing laughs.
06:58And from the earliest age, I thought, I want to do that.
07:01I need to do that.
07:03And so lastly, I'm so lucky that my dad is here today.
07:10Can you believe it, dad?
07:12He and my mom encouraged me to be an artist by giving me the gift of autonomy.
07:18These are Indian immigrants in the 1980s and 90s.
07:22And I can't tell you how rare that is and how that as a story is one that I don't always
07:26see with my contemporaries.
07:28As a helicopter parent, I can hardly understand how they were able to do that.
07:33But I love you so much, dad.
07:36And I love you, mom.
07:37Okay.
07:38So I did it, folks.
07:39I am really in the moment, and it feels strange but nice.
07:43And now that we're done, we can all drink cocktails and eat meatballs at the after party.
07:48And you can meet my three rambunctious children.
07:50And thank you so much for coming in the middle of the day.
07:52It means the world to me.
07:54Thank you to all my friends.
07:55Anyone I didn't see here, I'll see you afterwards and thank you in person.
07:59But it means so much to me.
08:00And thank you, everybody, for watching at home.
08:05The Honorable Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
08:16And I will keep this very short because you are here to hear from Mindy and not from me.
08:21But I did want to just say on a personal note, as an avid consumer of rom-coms and sitcoms
08:28throughout my youth continuing till today, Mindy has kept this art form alive in Hollywood
08:33personally.
08:36And it has been incredible to watch.
08:39And I will also say that it is only thanks to Mindy's work and incredible success that
08:44my daughter, Kaveri, a proud Tamil American, will never have to wonder, as I did when I
08:50was young, whether she was worthy of being the star of a rom-com herself.
08:59I've watched in awe and with pride as you've made your mark on the global stage.
09:05And when I heard that you were about to make a physical mark on the city of Los Angeles,
09:10as the only South Asian representing this city, I knew I had to be here to congratulate
09:13you personally.
09:15So thank you, Mindy, for all your work.
09:17And my heartiest congratulations to you.
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