A Long Day at ‘The Office’ With Mindy Kaling

When she joined the show, Kaling was 24, new to Los Angeles and the only woman on a writing staff of eight. As she recalls in her comic memoir, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns),” to be published by Crown Archetype this November, she rented a small apartment on Fairfax Avenue and Fountain Boulevard, which she did not know was the nexus of transvestite social life in West Hollywood. “I . . . enjoyed late-night interactions with strangely tall, flat-chested women named Felice or Vivica, who always wanted rides to the Valley. If my life at the time had been a sitcom, an inebriated tranny gurgling, ‘Heeeeey, giiiirrrrrl!’ would have been my ‘Norm!’ ”