A night inside the writers room of The Mindy Project

Occasionally Angela goes to writerly events with me -- and when I asked her over a month ago if she wanted a ticket to the Writers Guild's event Inside the Writers Room of The Mindy Project her quick response was, "Will Ike be there?"

Yes, Angela knows who the writers of many television shows are. She follows them on Twitter and often I only have to say a first name and she knows exactly who I'm talking about. Ike is just one example - but a good one. He's not only a writer on the sitcom but an actor on the show. And Morgan, Ike's character, is Angela's favorite.

So off we went to the panel, held in a movie theater on the west side. We met up with a fellow writer I'd connected with at Friday Night Drinks and we chatted, checking baseball and hockey scores all evening. A really great night.

After a screening of an episode the writers, including Mindy Kaling who's also the creator and star of the show, talked for over an hour about their experiences writing the show, working in Hollywood, and what it's like to enjoy the heck out of your job. And as the evening wrapped up, something Kaling said stuck with me:

"No one's going to believe in you except you and your mom so just do your own thing. I created my own opportunities and just kept chipping away."

I love that. I love that this woman who was raised to be seen and not heard, who knows it's polite not to be a drama queen and draw the attention of the room to herself, has gotten all the attention by doing her own thing. By writing her own material from day one, from preserving even when the network she wrote a hit-comedy for wouldn't make her next show, by just doing her own thing.

It was a fun, interesting night, for writers and television lovers alike. And a good chance to catch up with some friends new and old. And yes, we waited around long enough after to snap a picture with Ike, much to Angela's delight. And he was just so gracious and thankful to us and very sweet. Which was pretty awesome.

Angela, Ike Barinholtz, me & Akshay