Mindy Kaling doesn’t let anything stop her from getting the job done right — including giving birth!
During a panel at an Emmy FYC event for Netflix’s comedy series Running Point on Friday, star Kate Hudson gushed about how the show’s co-creator proved her dedication to their work, even at her most fraught moments.
“I have to say, I’ve fallen in love with this woman,” Hudson said of Kaling, who also executive-produced the show. “And she’s just not only so brilliant, but so trusting … she puts the best team together,” she said, per PEOPLE.
Hudson, who plays a woman who’s abruptly appointed leader of her family’s pro basketball team in the series, recalled that Kaling was even working from her hospital bed after quietly welcoming her third child in February of 2024.
Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix
“And she was pregnant. We had a script, like our first table read. She’s on Zoom,” the actress shared. “She then has the baby and is sending notes like an hour after she has the baby. I was like, ‘Isn’t Mindy literally in labor?'”
It was all proof to Hudson that the Velma creator is “a powerhouse” that “delivers what she says she’s going to deliver.”
The Almost Famous alum isn’t the only star who has praise for Kaling. Brenda Song, who also stars on Running Point as Isla’s formidable bestie and Waves chief of staff Ali Lee, previously told Entertainment Weekly that the mother of three emboldened an uncertain Song to “come with us, trust us.”
“I was like, I will follow you blindly,” Song shared.
The mother of two and fiancé of fellow actor Macaulay Culkin said the experience reaffirmed the spark she felt working on Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. “Working with such incredible, supportive, talented people has really re-energized me and reminded me why I love doing what I do so much.”
Kaling created the sports comedy with Elaine Ko, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen. The show focuses on Hudson as Isla Gordon, who leads the L.A. Waves, a Lakers-like basketball team with an illustrious reputation, after her brother Cam (Justin Theroux) becomes embroiled in a drug scandal.
Long overlooked by her brothers (which also include Drew Tarver and Scott MacArthur) and late father, the ambitious and sports-savvy Isla must prove she’s right for the job. She has to find a way to win respect and a championship.
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Netflix renewed the show for a second season earlier this year.
“It was a completely new experience,” Hudson told EW in February about making the series. “I’d never been on a show where you do so much in one day. You would shoot a scene from two completely different episodes. I was like, ‘This is a whole new world.’ But we had such an amazing team of people, and oh my God, we just laughed so much.”
Running Point is streaming on Netflix.
