Mindy Kaling

Vera Mindy Chokalingam was born June 24, 1979, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to father Avudaiappan Chokalingam and mother Swati Chokalingam (née Roy-Sircar). She has an elder brother, Vijay Chokal-Ingam. Her parents are from India; the family immigrated to the United States in 1979, the same year Kaling was born. Kaling's mother died of pancreatic cancer in 2012.

Kaling has said she has never been called Vera, her first name, but has been referred to as Mindy since her mother was pregnant with her while her parents were living in Bengal. They were already planning to move to the United States and wanted, Kaling said, a "cute American name" for their daughter, and liked the name Mindy from the show Mork & Mindy.

Kaling graduated from Buckingham Browne & Nichols in 1997. The following year, she entered Dartmouth College, where she was a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Dog Day Players and a cappella group The Rockapellas, and wrote for the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, the college's humor magazine. Kaling graduated from Dartmouth in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in playwriting. She lists the comedy series Dr. Katz, Saturday Night Live, Frasier and Cheers as early influences on her comedy.