If you were a hot male actor in the years 2012 and 2017, and you were asked to be a guest star onThe Mindy Project,chances are you were about to portray one of Mindy’s romances. There are a few exceptions to that rule. In addition to a parade of boyfriends, dates, husbands, and losers,The Mindy Projecthadsome stellar guest starsthat weren’t there to kiss Mindy.
But, credit has got to be given where it is due. Mindy Kaling did an excellent job at using her television show as an excuse to kiss Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors. Here’s a look at the best guest stars in the series.
13Ed Helms
Ed Helmsappeared in two episodes in Season 1, where he played Dennis. Mindy and Dennis had a short-lived romance, only going on one date, and then much later kissing at Thanksgiving dinner. Despite their onscreen romance’s lack of success, the chemistry with this costar was superb, likely due to the pairs' long working relationship from their time onThe Office.
12Seth Meyers
Seth Meyersis another fleeting romance of the always-dating OBGYN, Mindy Lahiri. They have a picture-perfect meet-cute, but their movie magic wears thin as they go through the least romantic movie montage: Mindy and Matt going in and out of a frozen yogurt shop a million times because Mindy doesn’t like the flavor she picked until eventually realizing she just doesn’t like frozen yogurt.
Related:The Mindy Project: Dr. Lahiri’s Best Outfits in the Series, Ranked
Weirdly enough, that’s not the last of Seth Meyers onThe Mindy Project.In a later season, he appears as himself. In this episode, he is not Matt, but Seth Meyers, late-night television personality and victim of Mindy’s fertility clinic spring break trip girls who cut his dog’s leash.
11Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Evenin aGroundhog Day-esque alternate reality, Mindy still has gorgeous men falling at her feet. Following relationship problems in her real life, Mindy finds herself stuck repeating the same day except she’s married to rich and successfulReal Housewivesproducer, Matt, played byJoseph Gordon-Levitt. Despite him being everything she thought she wanted, she does everything in her power to break the time loop and get back to dating jerks.
10Ryan Hansen
Strangely enough, there is a second alternate-reality episode inThe Mindy Project, but this time the guest star isn’t her love interest, it’s her. After Mindy and another highly qualified colleague are wrongly passed over for a big promotion at the hospital, Mindy wishes she was a white man so that she wouldn’t have to face the racism and sexism that exist in her daily life. To her surprise and eventual chagrin, the next morning she wakes up as a handsome, white, male doctor, Dr. Michael Lancaster, played byRyan Hansen.
At first, the day is great. She experiences white male privilege at its finest, but as the day goes on, she starts to realize that this privilege comes with a price. This episode is creative and fun because even though Ryan Hansen is portraying Mindy and the main character of the episode, she is still the voice of their subconscious.
9Seth Rogen
Many of the guest stars onThe Mindy Projectare so comically bad as potential boyfriends and based on the work he does, it would be easy to assumeSeth Rogenwould be the worst of them all, but this episode is a little bit heartbreaking for Mindy fans. Seth plays Sam, who is Mindy’s long-lost childhood crush from summer camp. When he comes back into her life she learns that he is in the Army.
After a romantic day and lots of potential, he unveils that he isbeing deployed to Afghanistanthe next day. Realistically the show went on longer than his deployment would have, so it’s disappointing that Seth Rogen never popped back up.
8Max Greenfield
In stark contrast to Seth Rogen’s dreamy character,Max Greenfieldplays Lee, a teacher Mindy has a one-night stand with. Greenfield is charming and hard to resist, so much so that when he leaves his scarf behind, Mindy is convinced it’s because he wants her to find him, so they can go out on a real date. In reality, he left it accidentally and had no interest in seeing her again because he is married. Though we would rather not see him ever again, he makes another appearance later on in the series when Morgan delusionally thinks he might be Mindy’s baby daddy.
7B.J. Novak
Mindy loves to bring her friends fromThe OfficeontoThe Mindy Project,so it comes as no surprise that she would have her best friendB.J. Novakon for a few episodes. Novak plays a pretentious Latin professor named Jamie who, despite asking Mindy out on a date, is very clearly obsessed with his best friend. Their relationship is short-lived as they both quickly realize Mindy is the side character in his romantic comedy with his best friend. Despitetheir short-lived romance, Jamie pops up in the series from time to time in that season.
6Bill Hader
Bill Hader’scharacter, Tom, is a dentist and ex-boyfriend of Mindy’s who goes through a big character arc for a guest star. In the very first episode, his marriage to a patient is the catalyst for Mindy’s arrest. To sum up their relationship and the rollercoaster that is Tom: they meet in an elevator, move in together after dating for three months, and he dumps her for the bagel girl. He and the bagel girl get married, pregnant, and divorced.
Related:How Bill Hader’s Career Skyrocketed After SNL
Then Mindy runs into Tom at a frat party, now sporting an eyebrow piercing. Tom, a loser now, tries to fight Mindy’s boyfriend, and finally, after Danny and his wife split up, he is a member of a male divorcee group that walks the line of being a group of incels. For a guest star, he’s got a lot going on.
5Bryan Greenberg
Last but certainly not least of Mindy’s best romantic guest stars isBryan Greenberg. He played Ben, a nurse who won Mindy’s heart by how helpful he was with her son Leo. Mindy and Ben had a picture-perfect relationship and actually ended up getting married. It seemed too good to be true, and it was. Their marriage was brief and showed that Mr. Perfect isn’t always Mr. Right-For-You.
4Shonda Rhimes
At a Dartmouth beer pong tournament,Shonda Rhimesplays herself. She is still a successful TV producer, but in the show, she is also the reigning beer pong champion of Dartmouth.
