Kal Penn
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Kal Penn
at a Barack Obama rally at the University of Maryland, February 8, 2008
Born
Kalpen Modi
April 23, 1977 (1977-04-23) (age 31)
Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Occupation
Actor, producer
Years active
1998-Present
Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), known by his stage name Kal Penn, is an incoming Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Barack Obama administration.[1] He is an American actor and film producer.
Penn has had starring roles in the films National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, The Namesake, Epic Movie, and Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. His television credits include a recurring role on Day 6 of the series 24, and series regular Dr. Lawrence Kutner in the fourth and fifth seasons of House.
Biography
Early life
Penn was born Kalpen Modi in Montclair, New Jersey, to a father who worked as an engineer and a mother who worked as a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company; both of his parents are Hindu Gujarati immigrants from India.[2] He attended middle school at Marlboro Middle School and played baritone saxophone in the jazz band there. Penn is an alumnus and graduate of Howell High School, which is part of the Freehold Regional High School District. He was active in the school's theater productions, and The Fine and Performing Arts Specialized Learning Center for three years. He attended UCLA, where he double majored in film and sociology.[3]
Acting career
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, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, 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, and Harold & Kumar 2, with an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls. Penn was featured in the The Lonely Island's rejected MTV music video for "Awesometown", along with his friend Brandon Routh.
Penn says that he chose the stage name Kal Penn (from Kalpen Suresh Modi) 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. Penn has stated that he prefers his birth name and uses "Kal Penn" only for professional purposes.[4]
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?"[5]
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.[6]
In fall 2007, Penn joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House as one of Dr. House's new fellowship applicants.[7] 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.
Politics
Penn was a surrogate for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008 and a member of Obama's National Arts Policy Committee.[8] He appears in the Barack Obama video "Sí Se Puede Cambiar" by Andres Useche[9] 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 Liaison in the Obama administration, which he accepted. This necessitated his character Lawrence Kutner being written out of the TV series House.[1][10][11]
Personal life
Penn is a vegetarian, and ate soy patties instead of hamburgers during the filming of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. [12]
In spring 2008, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.[3][13] He taught a course titled “Images of Asian Americans in the Media”.[14]
Penn is currently working on a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.[3][1]
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