Mindy Kaling may have one movie in theatres, Late Night, and a television series about to drop on Hulu later this month, Four Weddings and a Funeral, but she’s already moved on to the next project. Netflix has ordered a ten episode series based on her young adult life and Kaling cast a total newcomer for the role of what is essentially a younger Mindy. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was so new that when she auditioned she didn’t even have an agent as the odds were not in her favor. According to Variety, Kaling and her collaborators had put out an open casting call that approximately 15,000 young women responded to.
The untitled series will be co-executive produced by Kaling and Lang Fisher. Kaling is clearly integral to the project as it is semi-autobiographical, but she has also previously proven her comedy chops writing and acting in The Office and The Mindy Project. Fisher is also no stranger to the writing room, having worked with Kaling on The Mindy Project and also on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The Wrap reports that they will be joined by three others Howard Klein (Parks and Recreation, The Office), David Miner (Master of None, 30 Rock) and Tristam Shapeero (Turn Up Charlie, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
To reiterate, the show is loosely based on Kaling’s life and may pull material from her first memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). However, the official logline of the show says it will follow, “Devi (Ramakrishnan), an overachieving high school sophomore who has a short fuse that gets her into difficult situations. The series will [show] her life as a modern-day first generation Indian American teenage girl.”
The show is still in pre-production as there are still casting calls out for two other characters. They are looking for women of South Asian descent, specifically one role for someone in her mid-20s and another for someone in her mid-40s.
Four Weddings and a Funeral premieres on July 31 on Hulu, a different streaming service than the one that will hold this show, but still a home to Kaling content.