Mindy Kaling has accused the Television Academy of trying to diminish her work on The Office.
Kaling, who starred in the show as well as serving as an executive producer, director and writer during its acclaimed nine-season run, said the body which oversees the Emmy Awards attempted to strip her of a producer’s credit.
It would have made Kaling, the only woman of color on the producing team, ineligible to accept an Emmy had The Office won the outstanding comedy series prize.
Kaling, 40, told Elle magazine the Academy argued there were too many producers credited on the show and forced her to go through a “humiliating” process to prove her contribution.
However, the TV Academy has denied these accusations and responded to publications saying that no one person had been singled out. “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 Academy said.
However, Kaling has now dismissed the academy’s response, saying it “doesn’t make any sense.”
(3) The point is, we shouldn’t have 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.
— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) October 9, 2019
While this justification is not a requirement now, the Academy does till vet consulting-producer credits with the Producers Guild to ensure that everyone is working as a producer.
Later, she also tagged TV Academy and called them out for not acknowledging the incident or apologizing to her.
Ultimately, Mindy’s name was retained in the credits for The Office though the show did not win an Emmy that year in 2007.
