Oprah and Mindy Kaling Are Producing a New TV Show Together

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Great minds think alike: Harpo Films and Kaling International—a.k.a. Oprah’s and Mindy Kaling’s production companies, respectively—are partnering with Warner Bros. Television on a new project. WB has officially acquired the rights to Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, a novel from bestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto.

Sutanto is the author of Dial A for Aunties—which has been optioned for film by Netflix—and its sequel, Four Aunties and a Funeral, along with Well, That Was Unexpected and the upcoming Didn’t See That Coming. Sutanto grew up in both Indonesia and Singapore before earning a master’s degree from Oxford University, and she writes rich characters that reflect her upbringing—including her 42 first cousins and 30 aunts and uncles.

Vera Wong was published in March 2023 and follows the titular character, a widow who unexpectedly finds a dead body in her San Francisco Chinatown tea shop. After calling the police, she decides to take the mysterious flash drive that’s sitting in the dead man’s hand. As Vera investigates—and waits for the potential killer to return—she finds something even more surprising than a dead body: meaningful friendships with her customers.

Sutanto has shared that Vera was inspired by her own mother, and even paid tribute to her on Instagram during the week of Vera Wong’s publication. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for more information on casting and release dates for the TV adaptation—but with the backing of both Oprah and Kaling, who last worked together on Ava DuVernay’s film version of A Wrinkle in Time, Vera Wong’s story is sure to make for entertaining television.

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