Mindy Kaling Talks ‘Not Suitable For Work’ Hulu Show Inspiration

Avantika and Ella Hunt on “Not Suitable For Work.”

Gwen Capistran/Disney

Even after two decades in Hollywood, Mindy Kaling still vividly recalls the period before her life-changing experience working on The Office in her 20s.

“When I was on The Mindy Project in my 30s, it was such a blur to me,” Kaling said. “I don’t have a lot of specific memories from that time. The period of my life from when I graduated from college to when I got hired on The Office, I remember so vividly. It was a period of extremes of emotion. There was extreme disappointment and rejection, with being flushed with excitement about a crush.”

Since her early days as a staff writer on The Office, where she also starred as Kelly Kapoor, Kaling has carved out a distinct space in television, often centering stories about children of immigrants. She’s explored the messy life of an OB/GYN on The Mindy Project, the growing pains of an Indian-American teenager on Never Have I Ever and the momentous nature of college on The Sex Lives of College Girls.

Kaling’s formative memories of her 20s inspired her new Hulu series, Not Suitable For Work, set in New York’s Murray Hill neighborhood.

The show follows five Gen Zers with intertwined personal lives and a hunger for professional success: AJ Pascarelli (Ella Hunt), a driven first-year banking analyst; Abby Chilukuri (Avantika), a confident assistant to a demanding celebrity stylist; Davis Beau Bradley Barrett III (Will Angus), AJ’s hopelessly romantic coworker; Josh Teitelbaum (Jack Martin), a nepo baby who leverages his connections to land his dream job in TV journalism; and Kel Washington (Nicholas Duvernay), a medical school student who dreams of becoming an actor.

To bring the series to life, Kaling enlisted her longtime collaborator Charlie Grandy, whom she worked with on The Office, to serve as the showrunner.

“I think when you get to be of a certain generation, you can look down cynically at younger people and how they have it easier,” Kaling said. “And we do not feel that way at all. I think we have so much empathy for the characters on the show. We really love them. We really feel for them. And the most important thing was to feel like we got it right.”

Both Kaling and Grandy found personal connections to the show’s characters.

“AJ is the character I relate to the most,” Grandy said. “She’s just so driven and gets in her own way with her drive. I felt so desperate to impress, especially at that age, wanting to just be a ‘pick me,’ I really was able to relate to that.

Kaling, meanwhile, felt a strong connection to Kel, also a child of immigrants, who drops out of medical school against his parents’ wishes to pursue acting. After quitting med school, Kel begins working as a substitute teacher at a private school, school, giving him both an income and the flexibility to pursue acting. Kaling said that aspect of his story resonated with her, because she babysat for girls in Brooklyn Heights before her job on The Office.

“His storyline with working at the private school with these very young, very smart, exacting teenagers was something I really loved and I related to,” she said.

Grandy said that while it was easy to imagine the friendship among Davis, Josh, and Kel, the emotional depth of AJ and Abby’s relationship stood out as a highlight, particularly because of Hunt and Avantika’s real-life bond.

“I think the love that they have for each other really just comes through, and it’s such a wonderful, supportive relationship,” Grandy said. “Both those characters really get put through their paces emotionally, and they’re there for each other.”

Hunt and Avantika echoed that sentiment, recalling their experience filming on location in New York City, where they both live.

Hunt, who moved to New York at 20 to film the Apple TV series Dickinson opposite Hailee Steinfeld, said that working on Not Suitable For Work allowed her to reflect on that time in her life.

“When I came to New York, I was so eager and, similarly to AJ, just really determined and focused,” she said. “I was like a puppy and really excited to go to work.”

Hunt laughed while recalling her carefully chosen first-day outfit on Dickinson: her mom’s green mini skirt paired with a shirt featuring a monkey, while “everyone else was in sweatpants.” The moment mirrored AJ’s attempt to find the perfect outfit for her first day at Fisher Stassen.

“I felt a kinship with AJ,” Hunt said.

One of Hunt’s favorite memories was filming an early-morning scene in Central Park with Avantika, surrounded by peaceful scenery and leash-free dogs. The moment was also full circle because their trailers were parked outside Café Carlyle, where she happened to be performing a residency as a musician.

“To get to come to work, step into a trailer, by a building that had a poster for the show I was doing that night on it, it was crazy,” she said.

The pair also fondly remembered their time off set, exploring Manhattan’s food scene during lunch breaks.

“That was, I think, the best part of being able to experience parallels of my life in New York while filming this,” Avantika said. “It’s a lot of actors’ dreams to be able to film in a city where you don’t feel like you’re isolated.”

“It’s so unusual,” Hunt added. “To get to work from home is really special.”

The first three episodes of Not Suitable For Work are streaming on Hulu, followed by two new episodes every Tuesday.