Celebrities Making Headlines in Boston This Month – February 2017

Photograph by Dennis Van Tine/AP Images

Cambridge native Mindy Kaling’s The Mindy Project returns to Hulu this month with new episodes in a feat of scheduling magic her rom-com-obsessed character could appreciate: a Valentine’s Day premiere. Kaling is also keeping busy filming the female-fronted reboot Ocean’s Eight alongside Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, and Rihanna.

Think you’re hip? Put that notion to the test later this month at the Hynes Convention Center, when truckloads of YouTube stars—that’s right, young people you’ve never heard of who are making money hand over fist—come together for the first-ever Nerdcon. Get in line early to see Vlogbrother John Green, author of the beloved YA novel The Fault in Our Stars.

Famed community activist Mel King will appear on February 9 at the Seaport World Trade Center to receive some well-deserved love in the form of the fifth annual Building a Better Boston Award. Presented by the UMass Boston Center for Collaborative Leadership, it recognizes King’s lifetime of giving a voice to the city’s disenfranchised.

Birthday wishes are in order for a few of Boston’s boldfacers: Celtics star Isaiah Thomas and author Ben Mezrich (February 7), Attorney General Maura Healey (February 8), Orange Is the New Black star Uzo Aduba (pictured, February 10), and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt (February 19). Salud!

— Overheard —

Photograph by Angela Rowlings/AP Images

“It could be a Russian hacker, with all respect, like WikiLeaks, who was able to backdoor into the system.”

—Aaron Hernandez attorney George Leontire, theorizing about how Hernandez’s phone conversations got recorded