Mindy Kaling accuses the TV Academy of discriminating against her during early days of The Office

TheWrap

Kaling recalled in an Elle magazine interview that when The Office was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding comedy series in its early years, the TV Academy told her she would be cut from the list of eligible contenders because there were too many producers on the list. “They made me, not any of the other producers, fill out a whole form and write an essay about all my contributions as a writer and a producer," she told Elle. "I had to get letters from all the other male, white producers saying that I had contributed, when my actual record stood for itself." Kaling shared a similar story earlier this year while promoting her film Late Night. The Television Academy is denying Kaling's accusation. According to Variety's Michael Schneider, the TV Academy "responded by saying the rule in place at that time required every producer to submit a form explaining their producer bona fides. The exercise came following concerns that too many ineligible producers, such as those not involved in the day-to-day production of series, were being included among the crowd accepting awards on stage." “No one person was singled out,” the TV Academy said in a statement. “There was an increasing concern years ago regarding the number of performers and writers seeking producer credits."

• UPDATE: Mindy Kaling responds to the TV Academy's response: "Respectfully, the Academy’s statement doesn’t make any sense," she tweeted. "I *was* singled out. 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’." In a separate tweets, she added: "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? .... But I worked so hard and it was humiliating. I had written so many episodes, put in so much time in the editing room, just to have the Academy discard it because they couldn’t fathom I was capable of doing it all. Thankfully I was rescued by my friends, the other producers....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."