Kelly Kapoor

Kelly Kapoor is a character on the US Office played by Vera Chokalingam (AKA Mindy Kaling) an American actress and writer. Kelly is a customer service representative at the Scranton branch of fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. Kelly is the office chatterbox, usually on topics that a teenager might discuss, such as boys, dating, and celebrity gossip. Originally, the character did not have any outstanding personality traits, but in "The Carpet" she became established as having a bubbly personality and being somewhat immature. She tends to engage in long-winded, one-sided conversations on relatively trivial subjects, often to the chagrin of Toby Flenderson, her former cubicle mate (he moved, claiming he was allergic to his desk). Kelly seems also to have the capacity to play dumb, as evidenced by a conspiratorial wink to the camera in "Boys and Girls." Kelly is of Indian descent. She had a sister who passed away and has four living sisters who also enjoy gossip. Her parents were in an arranged marriage. It is revealed that Kelly enjoys shopping, especially online, in "The Coup" and in "Dunder Mifflin Infinity". She also loves clothing, as seen in "The Coup" and "Women's Appreciation". She has had relationshi[ps with Dayrell and Ryan Howard. She has a slight friendship with Pam which has become strained in some episodes for example The Deposition when she begins talking smack, as opposed to trash which she feels is not true.

Season One

Kelly is featured in the episode "Diversity Day," where Michael Scott conducts a diversity training seminar for his employees. When Michael suggests everyone state a race they are attracted to, Dwight immediately responds "Indian," which gets a curious (and rather alarmed) look from her. Kelly leaves to go to a customer meeting and comes back in the middle of a game where everyone in the room has to put a card with a specific race on their forehead (with the race being unknown to themselves), and then must treat everyone as if they were the race on their card. Michael, frustrated that no one is playing properly, attempts to demonstrate how to play, by approaching Kelly as she walks into the room and speaking in a stereotypical Indian accent. He starts to get offensive, mentioning various Indian stereotypes, such as convenience stores and trying to offer her "Googi googi," to which Kelly responds by slapping him and walking away.

Season Two

Kelly's race subjects her to repeated embarrassing and insulting references. For instance, she wins the "Spicy Curry" award at the 8th Annual Dundie Awards. She angrily questions an evasive Michael about why she got the award. She dresses up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz on Halloween, which prompts Michael to say, "Interesting take on Dorothy" followed by his suggesting that she wear a soccer uniform and dress like Jess Bhamra, a character of Indian descent in Bend it like Beckham.

During the company "Christmas Party", Kelly gives a possibly inebriated kiss to Dwight, possibly due to his comment in "Diversity Day," although this plot line did not develop (Dwight was already dating Angela). Instead, Kelly is involved in a wildly uneven relationship with Ryan Howard, the office temp. She hints (often with little subtlety) that she wants to marry him and have children as soon as possible, though he is strongly opposed to it and is not especially interested in her. The relationship is often rocky as Kelly suffocates Ryan with her almost aggressively perky behavior. In the episode "Take Your Daughter To Work Day", we see Kelly's manipulative side, after she witnesses Stanley's teenage daughter shadowing Ryan. Kelly lies and tells Stanley that Ryan tried to hit on the teenager, after which Stanley berates Ryan. In the season finale "Casino Night", Ryan wearily admits to Jim that he is still dating Kelly.

Season Three

At the Hindu Diwali festival, Kelly's parents criticize Ryan for not being committed to marriage and family and for not making enough money ("Diwali"); they suggest that she go for a particular, more successful man of Indian descent. When Jim Halpert sees Kelly for the first time after the merger between the Stamford and Scranton branches, he asks her what has been going on in her life, to which Kelly responds by gossiping excitedly about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's daughter Suri and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's daughter Shiloh, which have nothing to do with her life. She joins Pam and Karen's party in "A Benihana Christmas" with Ryan.

Hurt by Ryan's comments in "Business School," Michael moves Ryan's desk next to Kelly's as a form of punishment. Kelly is excited by the move, though she and Ryan bicker (and passionately make up) constantly. In "The Negotiation," Kelly reveals that Ryan once laughed at her during a date when a boy on a Ferris wheel spilled his milkshake on her. Ryan just replies "Well, that was funny; that's why." She also questions Ryan's bravery, mentioning that he once called her for help when he thought there was a "murderer" in his apartment. All this bickering makes Toby wonder in a talking head interview if Michael purposely put Ryan and Kelly together next to him just to annoy him. Toby comments, "Genius."

In "Safety Training" the office bets on comments and timing Kelly makes when talking to Ryan about Netflix, such as saying "awesome" twelve times and mentioning six romantic comedies. Pam won $10, Jim, $5, and Ryan, a lot.

Despite her often frivolous and immature behavior, Kelly is seen in a rare professional capacity in "Product Recall." She trains Oscar, Angela, and Kevin for taking customer service phone calls after an obscene watermark is printed on Dunder-Mifflin paper, prompting too many complaint calls for Kelly alone to answer. She is very enthusiastic about this new task, and mentions that sometimes when she is bored she will make up a name for herself or talk in an accent (such as imitating Bridget Jones) while on the phone. Unlike Angela, who cannot bring herself to follow Kelly's advice and say "I'm sorry" to irate customers, Kelly demonstrates some skill at soothing the angry callers.

In "Women's Appreciation," Kelly accompanies Michael and the other women of the branch to the mall. During a final montage showing the results of their Victoria's Secret shopping spree, Kelly is shown giddily clutching handfuls of frilly undergarments.

In "The Job," Ryan, after receiving a promotion to the corporate headquarters, tells Kelly bluntly, "You and I are done."

During the summer, it was revealed through a short NBC advertisement explaining all the employees' summers that since breaking up with Ryan, Kelly has not stopped crying and has spent her days in the office under her desk not speaking or associating with anyone

Season Four

In "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Kelly reveals that she is pregnant with Ryan's child in an attempt to get back together with him (though in a talking head interview shown soon afterward, she admits that this is just a ploy). Ryan agrees to have dinner with her to discuss her "pregnancy," but is even angrier later, having learned of her trick. He is seen on a phone call to Corporate, trying to have her job outsourced to India.

It also seems as though there is a relationship sparking between Kelly and Darryl, after he defends her from Dwight's anger over her purchasing paper online while he was trying to best the website in sales. She delightedly confesses that she didn't really need paper; she just loves the cute and friendly seeming website, particular the way the paper "flies" into the shopping cart icon.

In the episode "Money", Kelly and Darryl kiss in the conference room, confirming their relationship; during a grammar discussion of objective and subjective case, Kelly complains that Ryan used her "as an object." Darryl seems at times much less enthusiastic about the relationship, evoking Ryan's previous attitude toward Kelly. He declines to go on a date with her in favor of spending time with daughter, and when Kelly presents him with an ultimatum (her or his daughter), he says, "My daughter" without hesitation. However, he complains in a talking head interview that Kelly primarily seems interested in him when Ryan is around. He also gives her some rare straight talk, showing that he can view their relationship in a mature way. A bemused Kelly tells the cameras that Darryl is "complicated" and that she doesn't understand why he always says what he's thinking. She assumes that he is playing some kind of game.

In the episodes "Local Ad" and "The Deposition", it is clear Kelly and Darryl are dating. In the latter episode, Kelly becomes confrontational and insulting towards Pam when Darryl keeps beating Jim at ping-pong (Kelly explains the difference between talking trash and talking smack), leading Pam to finally get fed up and challenge Kelly to a game. However, it becomes clear immediately that Kelly and Pam are evenly matched at ping-pong: they both are abysmal.

Other Information

Kelly was created because Michael needed to be slapped by a minority in the episode "Diversity Day."[1] It is revealed in "Michael's Birthday" that Kelly had a sister who died sometime before the episode. This becomes known when she states that Princess Diana's funeral was "the saddest funeral ever... that and my sister's." Kelly's parents in "Diwali" were played by Mindy Kaling's real parents. She wants to name her and Ryan Howard's future child Usher Jennifer Hudson Kapoor. (not Howard) She is a frequent user of Netflix. In a deleted scene during "The Job", Kelly gives Pam wrongheaded advice about Jim, saying Jim is not into Pam. Pam then interviews that she and Kelly have nothing in common and that she needs new friends. In another deleted scene from "The Job", Michael Scott describes his planned new apartment once he gets the Corporate job, a 1-bedroom place in Queens he will share with a man named Chokalingham--in real life, that is Mindy Kaling's full last name. A deleted scene from "The Dundies" reveals that Kelly has a physical attraction to Toby, but is turned off by the fact that he has a daughter, referring to her as "that stupid kid."