'The Office's' Mindy Kaling Comedy Gets Pilot Order at Fox

UPDATED: She will write, executive produce and star in the comedy about a Bridget Jones-type doctor trying to navigate her personal and professional lives. Should the project earn a series order, the actress would depart the NBC comedy.

2:09 PM PST 1/30/2012 by Lesley Goldberg

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Mindy Kaling

Fox is getting into the Mindy Kaling business.

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The network has officially picked up to pilot an untitled comedy from The Office's Kaling that would star the writer-actress as a young Bridget Jones-type doctor trying to navigate both her personal and professional lives.

The project, which hails from Universal TV, would be written and executive produced by Kaling, with Parks and Recreation and The Office's Howard Klein on board as a nonwriting executive producer.

NBC, which has already picked up more than 10 comedy projects this season, passed on the single-camera project before it landed at Fox.

The pilot order is the second off-network pickup for Universal Television of late, with CBS giving pilot orders over the weekend to the Louis C.K.-Spike Feresten comedy.

The Kaling project comes as the actress has long talked about playing an OB/GYN on screen and days after NBC announced plans for a potential Office spinoff that would see Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute run a bed and breakfast on his family farm.

Should Kaling's Fox pilot earn a series commitment, the Office star whose Universal Television deal expires in June, would depart the NBC series and focus instead on her new effort.

The project joins comedies from Cougar Town's Bill Lawrence, Men of a Certain Age's Mike Royce, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenny and Rob Rosell, Shameless' Mike O'Malley and John Wells as having received pilot orders this season at Fox.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit