Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

TCA 2012 Mindy Kaling ProjectUPDATED: The Office co-star/writer/producer Mindy Kaling, who left the NBC comedy at the end of last season to topline her own series, Fox’s The Mindy Project, will make a return visit to The Office. Mindy Kaling Office“I’ll definitely be in the first episode next season and probably at least one other one too, which I’m really excited about,” Kaling said this morning during the TCA session for Mindy Project. She said she will return to resolve the story involving her character Kelly Kapoor. ”I got attached to that character”, she said. “It’s fun top see what’s going to happen to Kelly.” All Office regulars are coming back next season with the exception of James Spader, who left after a season, and Kaling. B.J. Novak scaled back his presence to recurring.

Kaling said earlier in the panel that Office costar Ed Helms would be one of her love interests on her new series and that her former show’s co-creator Greg Daniels would direct an episode. “It’s like, hey, who’s the boss now?” she joked. Earlier, she responded to a question about the rise of Indian-American actors such as herself in primetime. “It’s really exciting,” Kaling said. “I don’t think about it all the time, but it is a cool time for Indian actors.” She added, however, that her ethnicity wouldn’t be driving the storyline of her Fox series, which deals with the travails of a single woman with a successful career and a personal life that’s a bit of a mess.

Related: Fox To Preview New Comedies ‘Ben & Kate’, ‘The Mindy Project’ Online Ahead Of Debut