Fox is getting real about “The Mindy Project,” Cambridge writer and comedian Mindy Kaling’s post-”Office” sitcom. The network rolled out a TV trailer Friday to use promoting the show’s Sept. 25 premiere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Gmq8TP6IE&feature=player_embedded

The original, much longer pilot trailer was used in selling people on the idea of the show, in which Kaling plays a gynecologist (like her mom) looking for love despite being something of a mess. In fact, when the show was being prepped at NBC, it was called “It’s Messy”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0atkuby1SY&feature=relmfu

The show has also added cast members, according to The Hollywood Reporter, in famed character actor Stephen Tobolowsky as a fellow doctor (replacing Richard Schiff of “The West Wing”), Amanda Setton from “Gossip Girl” as an office manager and Ike Barinholtz of “MadTV” as an ex-con male nurse. Chris Messina and Ed Weeks continue in the cast, with friends such as Ed Helms and Bill Hader up for appearances as well.

Kaling was born in Cambridge in 1979 as Vera Mindy Chokalingam and went to Buckingham Browne & Nichols before college and writing the play “Matt & Ben” about two other famous Cantabrigians — Matt Damon and Ben Affleck — and putting it on in New York. The play became her calling card to Hollywood, where she joined the writers of the U.S. “Office” and quickly began acting in it as well.

Last year she published a book of essays, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)” with Random House and is the cast of the film “The End of the World” (with most of the world’s other comedians) for release next year.

Update: Another short TV trailer became available July 18:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjCf3IYG_BE&feature=player_embedded