Fortune Feimster :: Out, Southern & Funny On 'The Mindy Project'

Fortune Feimster has been making us laugh for years with her stand-up and appearances on talk shows. Now she's doing it as a cast member on Hulu's "The Mindy Project."

Playing Colette Kimball-Kinney, an out nurse who, as Feimster told EDGE recently, is very much like her, which is good for viewers because Colette adds another level of comedy in an already-funny show.

For Feimster, having a regular TV gig hasn't slowed her down with more stand-up, more touring and, as we saw recently on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," she's always up for putting her life on display to get a few laughs and, yes, that includes being gay.

Going off-script

EDGE: I've been watching your Instagram feed and you seem to be pretty much everywhere this summer. Are you everywhere, Fortune?

Fortune Feimster: I've been in 17 cities in the last three months so I'm super tired.

EDGE: Having talked to you a few times now, I know you're naturally funny but on 'The Mindy Project,' can you go off script a little bit or is it all pretty scripted?

Fortune Feimster: They actually let us go off script quite a bit. I mean we'll do quite a few runs of the written material since the writers are so funny, but then they're also good about letting us put our own voices in there with improve so I like the mix, to me it makes it feel a little more organic.

Playing Colette

EDGE: Now that you've been playing Colette, what do you like about her and what would you like to change about her?

Fortune Feimster: I like this character a lot because she's not that different from who I am, so that helps. She's Southern and she's a lesbian, so that wasn't too big of a stretch for me, but there's not much about her I don't like. We're still kind of discovering who she is and as her characteristics unfold I like her more and more. I think she has a big heart and is discovering who she is with coming to terms with her sexuality, and finding her independence from her brother and finding her place in the workplace. I feel like it's just a big discovery year for her and I like that because I've certainly gone through that in my own life at different times.

EDGE: Is it the best move for her to be besties with Morgan (Ike Barinholtz) because Morgan's life isn't necessarily the most even keeled?

Fortune Feimster: Colette is a little oblivious to Morgan's ridiculousness. I feel like the two of them are just sort of becoming more and more ridiculous together. We're sort of morphing into one wacky person. Ike and I get along so well outside of the show and we had sort of an instant connection and I think that comes through when we do those scenes together so it just feels very comfortable.

Heading to Ptown?

EDGE: Mindy and Colette's brother, Jody, moved into a romantic zone in the season. What does Colette think of that?

Fortune Feimster: She's glad he's done with the last chick. She did not quite care for a lot of his girlfriends. So I think Colette is pretty open to seeing where this goes. She doesn't have the history with Mindy's character that the other people in the office do so she doesn't have as much invested as far as they do so she's kind of like 'well, why not?' She's different from everything else [Jody has] dated and maybe this could be a good thing.

EDGE: Do you usually perform in Ptown in the summer or not?

Fortune Feimster: I've actually never done Ptown. I'm a bad gay. I have been offered to do it but I was working on Chelsea [Handler's E! series] for four years so I couldn't get the time off and then the one year I had to do it, no shows came about. Now I'm under contract with 'Mindy' so I just can't get away.

EDGE: I saw you doing your stand-up on Seth Meyers recently. I love that you have so much gay stuff in your act -- with everything in Orlando and the world, I think it's a good thing for everyone to see.

Fortune Feimster: It is cool. I mean, I always talk about my life and my stand-up and being gay is part of my life but it's certainly not my whole act and I decided to add some of those gay jokes in there just because of what happened. I want to be a positive influence to the gay community and also to have people watch me who might not know any gay people and if they can laugh along with my jokes then maybe it makes gay people seem less scary to them. I just thought everybody just needed to laugh so I hope that I provided that.

The first four seasons of 'The Mindy Project' are available to visit her website