Kal Penn

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Kal Penn
The photograph of Kal Penn
Kal Penn as Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement
Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement
Incumbent
Assumed office
April 8, 2009
President Barack Obama
Personal details
Born Kalpen Suresh Modi
(1977-04-23) April 23, 1977 (age 36)
Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation Actor, film producer, civil servant
Religion Hinduism

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 roles portraying the character Dr. Lawrence Kutner on the television program House and the character Kumar Patel in the Harold and Kumar stoner comedy films. He is also recognized for his performance in the critically acclaimed film The Namesake. Penn has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting lecturer in the Cinema Studies Program.

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.[1] This necessitated that his character Lawrence Kutner be written out of the TV series House.[1][2] 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.[3] He filmed the third installment of the Harold and Kumar series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, then returned to the White House Office of Public Engagement as an Associate Director.[4] In July 2011, he again left the White House, this time for a role in How I Met Your Mother,[5] and then went back to his political duties.

Contents

Early and life [edit]

Penn was born as Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey, to a Hindu Indian family. His mother, Asmita, is a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company, and his father, Suresh Modi, is an engineer.[6][7] Both of his parents are Gujarati immigrants from India.[8] He has stated that stories of his grandparents marching with Mahatma Gandhi for Indian independence were a significant influence on his interest in politics.[9]

He attended Marlboro Middle School in Marlboro Township, New Jersey and played baritone saxophone in the jazz band there. Penn attended The Fine and Performing Arts Academy (a magnet program) at Howell High School for freshman, sophomore, and junior years; he transferred to Freehold Township High School for senior year; both schools are part of the Freehold Regional High School District. He was active in the schools' theater productions and competed on the Freehold Township forensics team. He attended UCLA, where he double majored in film and sociology.[10] Penn is vegetarian and ate veggie sliders during the filming of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. [11]

Career [edit]

Acting career [edit]

Penn's feature film debut came in 1998 in Express: Aisle to Glory. He has since appeared in American Desi, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Malibu's Most Wanted, A Lot Like Love, Dude, Where's the Party?, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Superman Returns, National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, Epic Movie, The Namesake, the Harold and Kumar series, and an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls.

Penn says that he derived his acting name, Kal Penn, as a lark: "Almost as a joke to prove friends wrong, and half as an attempt to see if what I was told would work (that anglicized names appeal more to a white-dominated industry), I put 'Kal Penn' on my resume and photos." His audition callbacks rose by 50 percent. He has stated that he prefers his birth name and uses "Kal Penn" only for professional purposes.

In January 2007, Penn appeared in the first four episodes of the sixth season of 24 as Ahmed Amar, a teenage terrorist. Penn says he nearly turned down the role due to personal ethics, stating: "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?"[12]

Also in January 2007, he appeared in the spoof comedy Epic Movie as well as the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In May 2007, Penn received the Asian Excellence Award for Outstanding Actor for his performance in The Namesake.[13]

In fall 2007, Penn joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House as a fellowship applicant.[14] E! reported that Penn had signed on as a regular on the show along with Olivia Wilde and Peter Jacobson and this was confirmed in the plot of the episode "Games". Penn continued with the series through to the episode "Simple Explanation", which aired April 6, 2009. He made an additional appearance as Lawrence Kutner on the fifth season finale, "Both Sides Now", that aired on May 11, 2009. However, due to his new job at the White House, Penn could not be present for the filming of this episode. The clip of him saying "Too bad it isn't true" was taken from a previous filming. Penn returned to the show for the series finale.[15]

Beside his role on the TV series House, he is best known from his role in Harold & Kumar, as Kumar Patel, a cannabis smoker who goes with Harold Lee (John Cho) to White Castle for a hamburger. Unlike his character, he does not smoke marijuana, claiming it is not for him,[16][dead link] nor does he eat meat.

On July 13, 2011, it was announced on Facebook that Penn would be recurring on How I Met Your Mother for the seventh season of the show.[17] In 2012, Penn narrated a television commercial for Amazon.[18] Starting May 1, 2013, Penn will host Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius on the Discovery Channel.[19]

Political interests [edit]

A man giving a speech. He wears a white blouse with a dark label pin. In front of him, there are two microphones.
Kal Penn speaking at a rally for President Barack Obama at the University of Maryland's Nyumburu Cultural Center.

Penn was an advocate for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008 and a member of Obama's National Arts Policy Committee.[20] He appears in the Barack Obama-supporting video "Sí Se Puede Cambiar" by Andres Useche[21] and appeared with comedian George Lopez on January 18, 2009, at "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial".

In early 2009, Penn was offered the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in the Obama administration, which he accepted. This necessitated his character Lawrence Kutner being written out of the TV series House.[1][22][23] In his new role with the Obama administration, Modi served as a liaison with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.[24] He had gone back to using his birth name, Kalpen Modi.[25]

Having made a commitment before his employment at the White House, Penn amicably left his post as Barack Obama's associate director of public engagement on June 1, 2010 to return to his acting career.[3] He returned to office on November 15, 2010, following completion of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.[26]

In February 2012, it was announced that Penn would be a co-chair for the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama.[27] On September 3, 2012, Obama for America released a video featuring President Obama and Penn which announced that Penn would host the September 6 coverage of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.[28] Penn's speech at the convention encouraged young people to register to vote and defended Obama's record.[29][30]

Other activities [edit]

In 2008, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.[10][31] His course was titled "Images of Asian Americans in the Media."[32] In 2010, Penn wrote an article in the Huffington Post, responding to a Time Magazine article, which he said had contained racist comments against Indian immigrants in New Jersey.[33] Penn is currently working on a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.[1][10]

Filmography [edit]

Film [edit]

Year Title Role
1998 Express: Aisle to Glory Jackie Newton
1999 Freshman Ajay
2001 American Desi Ajay Pandya
2002 Hector Kendal Cunningham
National Lampoon's Van Wilder Taj Badalandabad
Badger Sanjay
2003 Cosmopolitan Vandana's fiancé
Love Don't Cost a Thing Kenneth Warman
Malibu's Most Wanted Hadji
Dude, Where's the Party? Mo (Mohan Bakshi)
2004 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle Kumar Patel
Ball & Chain Bobby
Homeland Security Harrison
2005 Dancing in Twilight Sam
Son of the Mask Jorge
A Lot Like Love Jeeter
Sueño Raj
2006 Man About Town Alan Fineberg
Bachelor Party Vegas Z-Bob
The Namesake Gogol / Nikhil Ganguli
Superman Returns Stanford
Deck The Halls Amit Sayid
National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj Taj Badalandabad
2007 Epic Movie Edward
2008 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay Kumar Patel
Butcher Jordan Tichenor
2011 A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas Kumar Patel
2013 Bhopal: Prayer for Rain Motwani

Television [edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1999 Brookfield Kumar Zimmerman
1999 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Hunt 1 episode
2000 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Prajeeb 1 episode
2000 Spin City Buddy 1 episode
2001 Angel Fez boy 1 episode
2001 ER Narajan 1 episode
2001 NYPD Blue Solomon Al-Ramai 1 episode
2001 The Agency Malek 1 episode
2003 All About the Andersons Dinesh
2003 Tru Calling Steven 1 episode
2006 The Danny Comden Project Max
2007 Law and Order: Special Victims Unit Henry Chanoor
2007 24 Ahmed Amar 4 episodes:
"Day 6: 6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m." (season 6: episode 1)
"Day 6: 7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m." (season 6: episode 2)
"Day 6: 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m." (season 6: episode 3)
"Day 6: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m." (season 6: episode 4)
2007–12 House Dr. Lawrence Kutner Main role
37 episodes
2011–12 How I Met Your Mother Kevin Recurring role, 9 episodes:
"The Stinson Missile Crisis" (season 7: episode 4)
"Field Trip" (season 7: episode 5)
"Mystery vs. History" (season 7: episode 6)
"Noretta" (season 7: episode 7)
"Disaster Averted" (season 7: episode 9)
"Tick Tick Tick" (season 7: episode 10)
"Tailgate" (season 7: episode 13)
2013 "The Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius Himself Host

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Ausiello, Michael. "'House' exclusive: The shocking story behind last night's big death", Entertainment Weekly, 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  2. ^ It'll be the White House for Kal Penn now. Rediff.com, 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  3. ^ a b "Kalpen Modi, aka Kal Penn, aka Kumar, leaves the White House, returns to showbiz". WashingtonPost.com (The Washington Post). June 22, 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2010. 
  4. ^ "The Note". 2010-11-15. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
  5. ^ "Kal Penn to leave White House again". 
  6. ^ Chivukula, Som (2002-04-12). "Article: Kal Penn's do's and don'ts". India Abroad. Retrieved 2010-04-02. 
  7. ^ By Yuan-Kwan Chan (2007-10-16). "Happy Birthday, Asian American Arts Alliance". Meniscuszine.com. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
  8. ^ Chhabra, Aseem. Kal Penn: Hollywood's Desi No1!. Rediff.com, 2005-04-22. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  9. ^ "Kal Penn's The Rachel Maddow Show appearance (airdate April 10, 2009)". MSNBC. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
  10. ^ a b c Actor Kal Penn to Teach at the University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania Office of University Communications, 2007-03-26. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  11. ^ "10 Things You Didn't Know About Kal Penn". http://www.usnews.com/. Retrieved 2013-04-19. 
  12. ^ Yuan, Jada. "The White-Castle Ceiling". New York, 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  13. ^ "Asian Excellence Awards – Winners (archive)". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
  14. ^ "'House' gets a new group of trainees". CNN. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved July 18, 2007. 
  15. ^ Hibberd, James (March 22, 2012). "'House' finale scoop: Kal Penn in talks to return". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 22, 2012. 
  16. ^ "Kal Penn Does Not Smoke Marijuana". The Insider. Retrieved 2010-05-04. 
  17. ^ "THIS JUST IN: Kal Penn joining How I Met Your Mother". How I Met Your Mother. Retrieved 2011-07-14. 
  18. ^ We're the People with the Smile on the Box — Amazon TV Commercial - YouTube retrieved 13 November 2012
  19. ^   (2013-03-13). "Kal Penn, host of the Discovery Channel's The BIg Brain Theory : Discovery Channel". Dsc.discovery.com. Retrieved 2013-05-06. 
  20. ^ Penn, Kal. "Open Letter to Two Undeclared College Superdelegates". The Huffington Post, 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  21. ^ Joshi, Monika. "Actor Kal Penn roots for Obama". Rediff.com, 2008-02-04. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  22. ^ "It'll be the White House for Kal Penn now". Rediff.com, 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  23. ^ "Kal Penn Leaves House for the White House". Tvguide.com. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
  24. ^ "New role in Obama White House"[dead link]
  25. ^ Choudhury, Uttara. "You can call me Kalpen Modi". DNA (Daily News & Analysis), 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  26. ^ "Kalpen Modi Returns To White House Job After Leaving To Film 'Harold & Kumar' Sequel". Blogs.abcnews.com. 2010-11-15. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
  27. ^ "Obama campaign announces co-chairs". Politico.Com. Retrieved 2013-05-06. 
  28. ^ Log in om een reactie te plaatsen. (2012-09-03). "Watch the 2012 Democratic National Convention Live on BarackObama.com". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-05-06. 
  29. ^ Nick Wing (2012-09-04). "Kal Penn Speech At Democratic Convention: My Four-Letter Word Is 'Vote'". huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-09-08. 
  30. ^ Log in om een reactie te plaatsen. (2012-09-04). "Kal Penn's DNC Speech". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-05-06. 
  31. ^ Schwedel, Heather. "Kal Penn to teach at Penn". The Daily Pennsylvanian, 2007-03-26. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  32. ^ "Asian American Studies Program at University of Pennsylvania". Asam.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
  33. ^ The "Hilarious" Xenophobia of Time's Joel Stein”.

External links [edit]

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