Mindy Kaling felt "awful" when Fox cancelled her series ‘The Mindy Project’.
The 39-year-old actress starred in the critically-acclaimed series that featured Mindy as a successful doctor who desperately wants to become a well-rounded woman with balance in her personal and professional life with mixed results.
Original broadcaster Fox decided to pull the plug on the programme in 2015 which left Mindy bereft, however, it was picked up by streaming service Hulu and went on to run for a total of seven seasons across both networks until November 2017.
Opening up about how she felt when told Fox were stopping production, she said: "It was awful. It felt personal. I was the face of the show. My name was in the title."
Mindy first came to prominence in the US remake of sitcom ‘The Office’ and she has gone on to star in several hit films, such as ‘Ocean’s 8’, ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ and ‘Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian’.
The Indian/American actress credits her success to having "mentors" who believed in her.
She said: "For many years, I thought that hard work was the only way you could succeed, but it’s simply not true. Particularly if you’re a woman of color, you need people to give you opportunities, because otherwise it won’t happen. Talent is an important part of success, but you also need mentors to find promise in people that don’t necessarily seem like they will fit in."
Mindy – who has a 13-month-old daughter, Katherine – believes comedy can be a short career because comics get less "funny" as they get older because of complacency.
In an interview with the latest issue of Variety magazine, she said: "Almost no one who is funny when they were younger is still funny when they’re old. Success is terrible because as you get more successful, it leeches away your talent. It makes you rich and it makes you complacent."
Mindy Kaling felt ‘awful’ when The Mindy Project got cancelled
