Mindy Kalingis doubling down on her claims that the Television Academy singled her out and nearly snubbed her for a producer credit onThe Office.
The actress, who also worked as an executive producer, director and writer on the NBC series, recently opened up in an interview withELLEabout a particular time that she experienced sexism and racism while working on the show.
Kaling, 40, recalled a moment early in her career whenThe Officewas nominated for an Emmy for outstanding comedy series, but claimed that the Academy told her there were too many producers on the show, so she would be cut from the list and subsequently ineligible for an Emmy.
“I had to get letters from all the other male, white producers saying that I had contributed, when my actual record stood for itself,” she told ELLE, adding that her name was eventually included in the list, butThe Officeultimately lost the award.
Though the star felt the gesture was personal, the Academy felt otherwise and said on Wednesday that they asked everyone who was being considered for a producing Emmy at the time to prove their contributions.
“No one person was singled out,” a Television Academy spokesperson tells PEOPLE in response to Kaling’s interview withELLE. “There was an increasing concern years ago regarding the number of performers and writers seeking producer credits. At the time the Producers Guild worked with the Television Academy to correctly vet producer eligibility.”
“Every performer-producer and writer-producer was asked to justify their producer credits,” the spokesperson added, noting that they “no longer require this justification from performer-producers and writer-producers.”
The Academy’s statement, however, eventually caught the attention of Kaling — who then doubled down on her claims and accused the organization of being sexist and racist.
Mindy Kaling.Rich Fury/Getty
“Respectfully, the Academy’s statement doesn’t make any sense. I was singled out,” she wrote ina tweet shortly afterward. “There were other Office writer-performer-producers who were NOT cut from the list. Just me. The most junior person, and woman of color. Easiest to dismiss. Just sayin’.”
TheLate Nightstar elaborated on her thoughts in a thread of tweets that followed her initial post and said that although she valued every moment working onThe Officeand did not want to ruin her relationship with the Academy, she felt this issue was important to bring to the forefront.
“I’ve never wanted to bring up that incident because The Office was one of the greatest creative experiences of my life, and who would want to have an adversarial relationship with the Academy, who has the ongoing power to enhance our careers with awards?” she wrote.
“The point is, we shouldn’t have [to] be bailed out because of the kindness our more powerful white male colleagues. Not mentioning it seemed like glossing over my story. This was like ten years ago. Maybe it wouldn’t happen now. But it happened to me,” sheadded.
Since her time onThe Office, Kaling has gone on to be a force in the comedy world, both in front of and behind the camera.
From 2012 to 2017, Kaling starred in, produced and wrote forThe Mindy Project— becoming the first woman of color to do so for a primetime sitcom.
This year, she wrote, starred in and producedLate Night,as well as created, wrote and executive produced Hulu’sFour Weddings and a Funeraland the upcoming Netflix seriesNever Have I Ever.
She’s also been especially busy balancing motherhood with her successful career as she focuses on raising her daughterKatherine, who turns 2 in December.
source: people.com
