Mindy Kaling is a Woman of the Year because... "Her comic voice is as singular as her speaking one. An intellectual who is also a pop-culture queen, she can move between Audrey Hepburn poise and raucous relatability."

—Lena Dunham, 2012 Woman of the Year

HER WORDS TO LIVE BY: "When it comes to decision making, be your own best friend. I remember really well when my mom said that to me, the day before she died [in 2012]. She was giving me comfort. It's been very useful in so many situations." —Mindy Kaling, photographed poolside in Beverly Hills; Dries Van Noten dress. Irene Neuwirth earrings. Roger Vivier pumps. Stella McCartney sunglasses.

The Mindy Kaling tribe breaks down like this: more than 2 million viewers of The Mindy Project (the Fox comedy she created, writes, produces, and stars in, now in season three), over 3 million Twitter followers (thousands of whom retweet her essential rulings on things like the best and worst emoji), and one million-plus Instagram fans (who get as excited about her hair experiments as they would their own).

In other words, millions of women feel like Kaling, 35, is their BFF—the one you'd take shopping, talk politics with, and call on for backup in minor bar fights. "I love it, but it scares me a little bit, that responsibility," Kaling says. "I want to be a good best friend."

So who is this woman we feel so close to? The daughter of immigrants (architect dad, ob-gyn mom—just like the character she plays on Mindy), Kaling grew up worshipping writer-comedians Emma Thompson and Larry David. She cut her teeth as a writer-actor in a sleeper-hit play with her best friend after graduating from Dartmouth College; she played Ben Affleck circa "Bennifer" (cue backward baseball hat and tracksuit). The gig got her scooped up as the first female writer on The Office, where she also played chatty Kelly Kapoor.

By 2011 she was headed toward voice-of-a-generation status with her best-selling memoir, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). And in 2012 she got her own show, starring as Mindy Lahiri, an unmarried successful doctor who's confident, enjoys great sex, and has her own adorably decorated apartment. "I am a feminist," says Kaling. "So if that leaks into every episode of the show, I (a) like it and (b) don't do it on a conscious level. That's just our standpoint."

That perspective pops up constantly in The Mindy Project. In the season-three premiere, her character's boyfriend reveals a stripper-escort past—and then gives Mindy a lap dance. (Talk about a flipped gender script.) "Her show is essential in its depiction of a skilled career woman," says friend Lena Dunham. "Whatever you want to say about Mindy Lahiri's dating life, she is a very good doctor."