 In August 2002, Kaling portrayed Ben Affleck in an off-Broadway play called "Matt & Ben", which she co-wrote with her best friend from college, Brenda Withers—who played Matt Damon.The play was named one of "Time" magazine's "Top Ten Theatrical Events of The Year" and was "a surprise hit" at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival.Initially, Withers and Kaling had, "for their own entertainment, mockingly pretended to be the best friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck; that pretending spawned "Matt & Ben", the goofy play that reimagined how Damon and Affleck came to write the movie "Good Will Hunting"."