Is ‘Never Have I Ever’ True? Is It Mindy Kaling’s Childhood?

Not only that, but although both Devi and Mindy are/were “nerds,” their nerdiness is different. “But one of the things about me as a kid is that I was a shy nerd, but did not have the confidence Devi has; I think to be the star of the show and to hold down an entire production like this, the character has to have a lot of confidence,” Mindy revealed.

“Even though she has all these problems with how she looks and her social life and everything, we wanted her to have an underlying cheerfulness and a resilience I don’t think I had as a kid.”