Kal Penn (born Kalpen Suresh Modi; April 23, 1977) is an American actor, producer, and civil servant.As an actor, he is known for his role portraying Dr. Lawrence Kutner on the television program House, as well as the character Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar film series. He is also recognized for his performance in the critically acclaimed film, The Namesake. Additionally, Penn has taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturer.On April 8, 2009, it was announced that Penn would join the Obama administration as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement. This necessitated that his character, Lawrence Kutner, be written out of the TV series House. Penn resigned his post as Barack Obama's Associate Director of Public Engagement on June 1, 2010, for a brief return to his acting career. He filmed the third installment of the Harold & Kumar series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, and subsequently returned to the White House Office of Public Engagement as an Associate Director. In July 2011, he again left the White House to accept a role in the hit television series How I Met Your Mother. He has since returned to his role with the White House.
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo, MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Sequence, Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Rockstar Moment
Movies
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, The Namesake, Epic Movie, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, Superman Returns, The Girl In The Photographs, American Desi, Son of the Mask, Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, National Lampoon's Van ...
TV Shows
Battle Creek, We Are Men, The Big Brain Theory, House, All About the Andersons, Designated Survivor, Independent Lens
Star Sign
Taurus
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Quote
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[in "New York" Magazine, discussing the dissimilarity between his real life and the "Kumar" character] I don't smoke weed. That's not something that I generally offer up in terms of talking points about the movie, because there are a lot of stoners that like the movie and you never want to make them feel like something's disingenuous. But for me, it was always a buddy comedy or, you know, if it was a stoner movie, it was probably equal parts a hamburger movie.
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(2005) My friend and I will drive down to Tijuana just for lunch -- it's a 2 1/2-hour drive if you leave early. We go over the border and get these great tacos. There's no sign on the place, so we don't even know the name of it. Behind the shops where all the tourists go, there are these two alleys, and it's there. Half of the appeal, honestly, is that we're going to Mexico for tacos. We're here in Southern California and it's so close to another country, it's awesome that we can just go down there for lunch.
3
[in New York Magazine, commenting about his recurring role as a terrorist on TV's 24 (2001)] I have a huge political problem with the role. It was essentially accepting a form of racial profiling. I think it's repulsive. But it was the first time I had a chance to blow stuff up and take a family hostage. As an actor, why shouldn't I have that opportunity? Because I'm brown and I should be scared about the connection between media images and people's thought processes?
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Fact
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Kal Penn has both worked as a real-life White House staffer (as Associate Director of the Obama administration's White House Office of Public Engagement) and played one on TV (as Seth in the TV series Designated Survivor).
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L.A. [October 2002]
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Currently teaches a course at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. The course is entitled "Asian-Americans in the Media". [January 2008]
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With Rachael Leigh Cook, he appeared at Keene State College; Keene, New Hampshire, on November 3rd to campaign for Barack Obama. [November 2008]
(Late April 2010) Was robbed at gunpoint at 1:20 a.m. in Washington D.C. His wallet and other belongings were stolen.
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He was a member of the Freehold Township High School Forensics Speech & Debate Team. His lucky shirt is the team shirt which depicts the "Fighting Opi".
The brother of one of Peta 2's senior coordinator Pulin Modi.
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Kal Penn was invited for an audition for the role of "Gogol Ganguly" in the movie The Namesake (2006), because director Mira Nair's son, Zohan, and her agent's son, Sam, were big fans of Kal Penn's earlier movie - Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004).
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Accepted a position as the associate director in the White House's Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs [April 7, 2009].
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In April 2009, Penn told Entertainment Weekly Magazine that the writers killed off his character on House M.D. (2004) because he had asked to be allowed to leave the show to go work for the Barack Obama Administration as the Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Liaison.
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Is in the process of earning a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.
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During the Spring 2008 semester, he was an adjunct faculty member in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (familiarly called "Penn") in Philadelphia. He taught a lecture course, "Images of Asian Americans in the Media," and a seminar, "Contemporary American Teen Films," both of which were cross-listed in the Cinema Studies department. His faculty listing on the Asian American Studies Program website gave his name as Kalpen Modi (his real name) first, with his stage name, Kal Penn, in parentheses.
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Studied acting under the same teacher (Reynold Forman) as Anthony Bradford.
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His favorite book is "The Namesake" and used to check into hotels under the pseudonym of "Gogol Ganguli", the lead character of the book. When found out that Mira Nair was making a film out of it, despite her having already cast an actor in the part, Penn lobbied for the role and eventually won it.
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Was offered a part in "Planet Terror," the Robert Rodriguez segment of Grindhouse (2007), but turned it down due to the conflicting shoot of The Namesake (2006).
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Began using the name Kal Penn, a variation on his first name Kalpen, to get more roles; he believed that his difficult foreign name would scare away potential employers.
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Attended UCLA.
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Lives in same Los Angeles apartment building as director Christian Levatino.
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Although he attended Howell High School's performing arts program, he later transferred to Freehold Township (NJ) High School, where he graduated in 1995.
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Is of Gujarati Indian descent.
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When he was in 8th grade he was in a school production of the musical "The Wiz".
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His father is an engineer and his mother, who has a master's in chemistry, worked as a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company.
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Has one younger brother.
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Met future Where's the Party Yaar? (2003) co-star Datta Dave and Dave's current financial adviser Mihir Upadhyaya during college at UCLA. He assisted Dave in his pursuit of an acting career.
Once directed Jason Allentoff in a short film for a college project.
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He attended the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Howell High School in Farmingdale, New Jersey where he went though an intense study of the arts in acting, dance/movement, and vocal training.
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He and the other students were banned from using the word "like" in his acting classes, this was to make them sound more intelligent during auditions.