You've gotta be a bully.

I'll say this.

I used to think that I... 'Cause I always, because I was ne- never cool, and I was overweight and not pretty, I always thought, like, oh, I must be bullied.

But you realize in high school that some of the meanest fucking kids are the ones that were picked on or feel othered, right? Like, I felt like oftentimes, at least for me, maybe this is just for girls, that the nicest are kind of the, like, beautiful sweet ones that have always been treated well.

I mean, obviously there's, there's exceptions to this, but, like, I felt like some of the meanest people to me were people who were, like, versions of me but they were older, and were like mean.

It sounds great"

...

it sounds amazing and, and then it's such a different environment to being like, you know, on sitcoms, 'cause of all the, of your own show that you did.

if you're a bully, you're not going to get voted for.

Yeah, so I think...

But so the reason I was saying this is I remember...

in high school, I had a column in the newspaper and it would, I was called like woman on the street.

And I was, it was cool.

And you would like, it was at the back page.

And like, it was always like one of the funniest people in the year before I'd get it.

It sounds amazing.

So I was babysitting at

the time and my friend was a substitute teacher.

and your public school substitute teacher my friend Brenda and we were kind of miserable and I had applied to be a page at the NBC page program and I was certain I was going to get it and then I didn't and so we were just kind of like low level depressed like post 9-11 just like in jobs like why am I even in New York like I have no access to anything.

And we started just improvising.

And I kind of adopted this character of like Ben Affleck in quotations because obviously we didn't know them at all.

And she did Matt Damon.

And then we were like, we'd just be doing these characters for like 10, 15 minutes.

I agree.

[laughs]

Very hot and sweaty.

Like, we were always, like, in the beating sun.

Yeah.

[laughs] And l- l- like, but beautiful.

Yes.

But, like, always, like, I was sweating through my clothes constantly.

[laughs]

Yeah.

And so then I just was babysitting and I, so I was babysitting in the evenings and my best friend Brenda was substitute teaching in Brooklyn during the days.

But we would have this, like, one hour of free time before I left to babysit that she came home and we started tinkering around.

We kind of, like, neither of us were, like, UCB people-

Yes

...

it can be, like, so wonderful that you are going through this with your best friend, but there is the ugly side of it, and there's, you know, when one person surges ahead and then the other person stalls out, and then that person, you know.

So that's what the play was about.

How do you begin? Is it in a writer's room? Is it with Ike or whoever your favorite collaborator is on whatever the show is?

Yeah.

So the research aspect of the shows is really the most fun part of it.

For Sex Lives of College Girls, I went back to Dartmouth and talked to sorority girls and a cappella groups and just really talked about the experience of what it's like going to college in the 2020s.

And then for this show, I went to New York and I just...

How do I say this? For this show, I had to do a lot of research because the different jobs that all the characters have are not really my level of expertise.

Yeah

... you know? And so I have, especially with Never Have I Ever, and being able to f- discover these voices, whether it's the actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan or m- different directors we've used, like Anu Valia or Erica Oyama, just finding, um [smacks lips] all these ambitious, funny, particularly Asian women, uh, who love comedy and putting them onscreen or in the writers' room or directing TV has been so, uh, d- like I said, satisfying.

Can, can, do you know where I'm going here?

Yeah.

So I started on that show.

It was a six-episode first season, and there were seven writers.

I was the only woman on that staff.

It was incredibly stressful.

But the, the men that I worked with on that show, which was Greg Daniels, Paul Lieberstein, Mike Schur, B.J. Novak, the next season I worked with Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, these are some of the most successful comedy writers out there.

And I- it seems like it might have also fed into what you were wanting to do next.

A lot of work.

Yeah.

C- casting is, um, one of the most uniquely torturous experiences as a writer because it, you have such a specific idea of how you think the role should be.

Uh, we weren't picturing anyone in mind, but it's like you, it's, it's where you really see the disconnect between the material and, and how it's gonna be received.

And so it, it's like the...

And there's so many talented actors out there.

It's just, um, it's just hard to find these perfect matches, and then you have to do it five times.

Is this something that's, uh, not a directive, but by bringing elements into the screen, like social media, and texting, and keeping it punchy and zippy, obviously that's in- intentional, am I right?

[upbeat music]

Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

I'm so, I'm so happy to be here, guys.

Mm.

But I have wanted to lose weight since I was 12 years old.

You know, I've been writing jokes about diet [laughs] and all of, all body image since, you know, for 20 years now.

So when people are surprised or shocked that I wanted to lose weight, I'm like, "Wait, how is this news? I've been, I've been, this has been part of my personality since the Clinton administration." [laughs]

[laughs] We'll stop.

Larry Bird.

And so he, um ...

We, we, we ...

He grew up loving basketball.

I think basketball is the best sport in the world, the most athleticism, the most entertaining.

And the Lakers, I mean, l- love the Celtics, but it's like showbiz for a reason.

Thank you.

What did, what did it feel like when you guys were told that you'll be working on the show?

[laughs] When I met with Greg, I went in and, uh, I was certain I wasn't gonna get the job, and I brought a copy of Anna Karenina with me.

And he spent the entire time talking [laughs] about this great other writer who was also an actor on the show, BJ Novak.

[laughs]

[laughs] They seem awfully chummy, don't you think?

In terms of writing, though, we would have these late nights sometimes when we would write, and, um, Lester Lewis, who is another writer on the show who isn't here, um, would, like, make us martinis at, like, 2:00 in the morning and, and stuff instead.

Mm.

Like the Rohingya people who have largely for the past five years have been right on the edge of genocide, but now people are beginning to notice when hundreds and thousands of people are pushed out of their homeland and again on the brink of genocide.

Uh, you know, it just feels like every different part of our world, there's not a section of it where there is not some kind of active genocide happening, and right now it's the, with the Rohingya people.

Um, so the refugee crisis is, is-

I wanna know if you saw yourself that way at first, and how did that process unfold for you?

You know, for someone who is, uh, often touted for my confidence, I think that at the beginning, and certainly when I was working on The Office for so many years, I did not feel that way.

But what occurred to me in the time that I worked at The Office was when I was watching TV, and the, the TV landscape has changed so much even in the past 10 years, is although I was having a fun, romantic love life and having friends and dating, that no one who looked like me, that was ever reflected in anything that I ever saw.

You, I, there was many shows that I was fans of, like Sex and the City and all, and, but no one w- w- there was, and it was four fun, dynamic, uh, white women.

And how did you end up then playing a role on the show?

You know, he had put, Greg had put into the contract these acting, these writing contract these acting clauses for I think a number of the writers, at least it was in mine and I think Paul Lieberstein's.

So I guess in the back of his mind he was thinking in those terms, but the first season classic episode Diversity Day, written by the great B.J. Novak, um, I remember in the room he loved this idea, Greg loved this idea of Michael Scott offending all these people, but it's like i- it's, it's kind of the funniest version of it when there's like some minority people there too who can get extra offended.

So at that time, I think it just made sense to have another minority person, and I was like, [laughs] "I'll do it." I actually, I didn't volunteer.

He's like, he's j- I had two lines in that episode, and he said, "Do you wanna be in it?" And I was like, "Of course." Um, and so Diversity Day, yeah, thank heavens that was the second episode 'cause then that, I guest starred then and I think maybe once or twice that first season.

I wasn't in it very much.

And then second season was like I sort of saw, I got more lines.

It's such a big part of us.

Yeah, she plays Pam, and she's really the most put upon of all of them.

And that's a, a very, uh, it's a very cool tool because if you notice in the show, it's only certain characters sort of have the permission to have that familiarity with the camera and the cameraman.

And other characters who have less self-awareness do it less.

And it, and it works great.

Like, for instance, Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight, has, I think is a, is a kind of character who has less self-awareness.

And he doesn't do it as much as, say, John Krasinski and, and Jenna Fischer, who play Jim and Pam, the, the two, like, um, the love interests.

(laughs)

They are.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, so obviously Bird, Parish, you know, the greats, but they were, like, deep cuts.

I always loved basketball, and my dad d-Always was like, "Now, this is a sport." Like, they're so athletic.

It's fast-moving.

When she approached me, I checked with Ike and Dave.

They were busy.

They were on a deal at another studio.

We were watching the Paris Hilton documentary, and I'm like, "This fucking guy ruins her show, gets too drunk, and makes a scene 'cause he's so jealous everyone wants her attention." And it's like, what's that girl to do? Who the fuck is she gonna meet?