The Office’s Mindy Kaling On Motherhood and Playing Dress-Up With Her Daughter

The Office star Mindy Kaling, now 44, recently opened up about being a parent of two kids and how it’s changed her life in the years since the hit NBC series wrapped as she has continued to build an incredibly successful career.

Kaling, who played customer service rep Kelly Kapoor on the long-running NBC comedy (stream the entire series now on Peacock), recently took to Instagram to chat about what it’s been like becoming a mother to her young son and daughter.

“Look I know I’m clearly materialistic but the best birthday gift to me, for the rest of my life, are these two guys. I was never a ‘kid’ person. When my mom passed though, it just clicked in me: I wanted kids with such intense certainty,” she wrote recently, in celebration of her birthday. "I bet some of you can relate. Now I’m just trying to be present for them (hard for me! I’m impatient!), being up for anything (again hard for me, I am not whimsical!), and stay healthy for these two guys (ALSO hard! I just want to eat cheesesteaks every meal in front of the TV) for until I’m an old gray skeleton they’re like “mom, you gotta go”. My doctor told me that this year I was the healthiest I’ve been in years. That’s a pretty damn good gift, right?”

Kaling added that she’s often a naturally anxious person, but is trying to enjoy the good moments in her life and savor them: “I’m usually kind of low-level anxious, so I’m just gonna take one minute on my birthday to acknowledge that I am happy. Man, there are ups and downs in this life!! But my ups seem to be the most important ones right now. Thanks for my birthday love. (Also maybe I will buy myself that trendy Dior bag that looks like a kidney bean).”

Mindy Kaling On Finding Fun in Beauty With Her Daughter

In an interview with Allure, conducted before the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike, Kaling shared a sweet story about how her daughter interprets make-up and seeing her mother dressing up, and the fun she finds in beauty.

“She's five so obviously she’s not on social media and she doesn't look at Instagram or TikTok or anything like that. And I'm amazed at how much creativity in terms of how she wants to dress every day just comes from within,” Kaling said. “It's not from any outside sources. She loves beauty and makeup. And it's out of pure love. It's painting her face — literally painting her face is what she thinks of it as. It's not for the gaze of other people; she thinks it looks fabulous.”

Kaling said she let her daughter play with her makeup for her birthday, but made clear her daughter “does not [wear makeup]. She plays with makeup at home sometimes.”

“But I just love how much she loves it,” Kaling added. “And it's not [because of] peer pressure or anything else, it's just because she thinks it's so fun. And I really relate to that and I really try to emulate that.”

All nine seasons of The Office are streaming now on Peacock. Fans can also find extended seasons of SuperFan episodes, including hours of never-before-seen jokes, pranks and shenanigans — including plenty more of Kelly Kapoor.