Mindy Kaling Will Receive the 2023 Norman Lear Award from the Producers Guild

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) have announced that Mindy Kaling will be given the Guild’s Norman Lear Achievement Award at the 34th annual Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at The Beverly Hilton.

The honor, which recognizes a producer or producing team for their extraordinary body of work in television, has previously been given to TV moguls like Greg Berlanti, Marta Kauffman, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, Dick Wolf, Jerry Bruckheimer, Lorne Michaels, Aaron Spelling, David E. Kelley, and the eponymous Norman Lear himself.

On the choice to award Kaling, the first woman of color to be Emmy nominated in any writing category, Producers Guild of America Presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said via statement, “Comedy can break boundaries and push culture forward; Mindy Kaling‘s immense contributions to the television comedy landscape are prime examples of this truth.”

They added, “Kaling is known for her trailblazing work on ‘The Office,’ a widely loved and infinitely rewatchable contemporary classic, but it’s her work producing series from diverse female perspectives that is reshaping the industry. From ‘The Mindy Project,’ to ‘Never Have I Ever,’ to ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls,’ Kaling has proven just how much audiences have been craving funny, relatable stories about characters we’ve rarely see as television protagonists. We are so happy to present her with the Norman Lear Award at this year’s PGA Awards ceremony.”

Kaling responded to the news of her award win through her own statement: “It is such an honor to be asked to receive the Norman Lear Award, a prize named after the prolific and groundbreaking producer I am so inspired by. To be included in this prestigious group of past recipients is humbling, and I’m so grateful to the Producers Guild for this recognition.”

In addition to her work writing and producing shows across various platforms, Kaling is a New York Times best-selling author, director, actor, and, most recently, Tony Award winner. Joining the eight-person writing staff “The Office” as a 24-year-old, Kaling went on to write writing 26 episodes of the beloved workplace sitcom (more than any other writer), all while also starring on the show as scene-stealer Kelly Kapoor.

During her time at “The Office,” Kaling earned five consecutive nominations for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. Since then, she created and starred on “The Mindy Project” for six seasons, wrote and starred in her feature film debut “Late Night,” and made a string of streaming platform hits, including HBO Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” which is about to premiere its second season.

Up next for Kaling is the animated adult-comedy Scooby-Doo prequel, “Velma,” as well as writing the script for “Legally Blonde 3.”

Source: Read Full Article