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The TV Academy denies Mindy Kaling recognition for her roles behind the scenes of ‘The Office’

Posted at 4:37 PM, Oct 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-19 16:37:41-04

(CNN) — The stars of NBC’s “The Office” have had enough of the bias in Hollywood.

Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer, who played Angela and Pam on the show, defended co-star Mindy Kaling on Friday — after she spoke up about the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which presents the Emmy awards, trying to discredit her work on “The Office.”

When asked about the incident on BuzzFeed News’ “AM to DM” morning show, both Kinsey and Fisher expressed their distaste toward the TV Academy’s actions.

“I’m so glad that she spoke up and said something about it,” Fischer said.

“Because that’s crap,” Kinsey finished.

The TV Academy say Kaling wasn’t singled out

For everyone who doesn’t remember what went down, here’s a quick recap.

Kaling opened up to Elle magazine in October — saying that when “The Office” was nominated for an Emmy 10 years ago, the TV Academy tried to cut her from the show’s list of producers.

The TV Academy told her it was because there were too many producers listed, but she was the only one whose position was contested, she said. She was also the only woman of color among the producers.

“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,” Kaling said. “I had to get letters from all the other male, white producers saying that I had contributed, when my actual record stood for itself.”

The TV Academy denies that Kaling was singled out, though.

“There was an increasing concern years ago regarding the number of performers and writers seeking producer credits,” according to a statement to CNN and other news agencies. “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.”

But Fischer and Kinsey disagree

Kaling didn’t buy it. And neither do Fischer and Kinsey.

Fischer referenced the statement given by the TV Academy and said there were other people on the show with multiple roles.

“So did B.J. Novak, so did Mike Schur and so did Paul Lieberstein,” she said, as Kinsey hyped her up. “They were all writer-producer-performers on the show. So I guess I would say, so why single out Mindy and not those gentlemen?”

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Originally Published: 19 OCT 19 16:06 ET