Kal Penn

Kalpen Suresh Modi (; ; born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration.

As an actor he is known for his portrayals of Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar film series, Lawrence Kutner on the television program House, White House staffer Seth Wright on Designated Survivor, and Kevin Venkataraghavan, a psychologist and boyfriend to Robin in How I Met Your Mother. He is also recognized for his performance in the film The Namesake. Penn once taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturer.

In April 2009, Penn joined the Obama administration as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement as liaison for outreach to Asian Pacific Americans and arts communities. This necessitated that his TV character, Lawrence Kutner, be written out of House. Penn briefly left his post in June 2010 to film the third installment of the Harold & Kumar series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, returning to his White House job upon the film's completion. In July 2011, he again left the White House to accept a role in the television series How I Met Your Mother.

From 2016 to 2019, he played Seth Wright in the political drama Designated Survivor, where he also worked as a consultant on the show. He also hosted the game show Superhuman. In 2019, Penn portrayed Garrett Modi in the NBC sitcom series Sunnyside. The following year, he hosted a political talk miniseries on Freeform, Kal Penn Approves This Message.

Early life and education Penn was born as Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey on April 23, 1977, to Gujarati immigrant parents from Gujarat, India. His mother, Asmita Bhatt, is a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company, and his father, Suresh Modi, is an engineer. His father is from Kheda and his mother was born in Vadodara. Kal Penn regularly visited Gujarat as a child during vacations, and he can speak some Gujarati as well as some Hindi. He has stated that stories of his grandparents marching with Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian independence movement were a significant influence on his interest in politics.

Kal Penn attended Marlboro Middle School in Marlboro Township, New Jersey, where he played baritone saxophone in the jazz band. For high school he attended Freehold Township High School for all four years where he was enrolled in the International Studies Program the first two years. His Junior and Senior years he attended The Fine and Performing Arts Center (a magnet program) at Howell High School in the Acting program (FPAC is a part time program, so he was bused between schools). Both schools are part of the Freehold Regional High School District in New Jersey. He was active in the schools' theater productions and competed on the Freehold Township National Honor Society Speech and Debate team (formerly known as Forensics). He then attended UCLA, where he double majored in film and sociology, graduating with a B.A. in 2000.

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:

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?

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. In fall 2007, Penn joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House as a fellowship applicant.

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.

In addition to his role on the TV series House, he is best known for his role in Harold & Kumar, as Kumar Patel, a pothead who goes with Harold Lee (John Cho) to White Castle for hamburgers. Unlike his character, he does not smoke marijuana, saying it is not for him, nor does he eat meat.

Penn had a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother for the seventh season of the show, in which he played Kevin, a therapist and later boyfriend of Robin Scherbatsky. Starting May 1, 2013, Penn hosted Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius on the Discovery Channel. In 2013, Penn joined the cast of We Are Men.

In 2014, he was cast in Ravi Kumar's film Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, a film about the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered by many to be the world's worst industrial disaster. Penn played Detective Fontanelle White on the CBS comedy-drama Battle Creek, which was canceled during its first season.

In October 2016, Penn began a regular role in the ABC drama series Designated Survivor as Seth Wright, a White House speech writer who originally worked under the previous president's administration. Following the death of the White House Press Secretary in the pilot episode and the acting press secretary walking out on the job, his character gets promoted to Press Secretary.

Penn has expressed some interest in working in Indian cinema, particularly in Gujarati cinema. and the series was ordered on May 6, 2019. The show was cancelled after eight episodes were produced.

On May 9, 2020, Penn was cast as a lead on the 2021 CBS thriller drama series Clarice, a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs.

On December 2, 2021, Penn was set to produce and star in the biopic Superfan which depicts the story of Nav Bhatia.

In 2022, he was cast as Simon Choksi/Santa on The Santa Clauses, for which he received a nominations for the Outstanding Supporting Performance at the 2nd Children's and Family Emmy Awards.

In 2023, Penn guest starred in the Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.

Political activities alt=A man giving a speech. He wears a white shirt with a dark label pin. In front of him, there are two microphones.

Penn was an advocate for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008 and a member of Obama's National Arts Policy Committee. He appears in the Barack Obama-supporting video "Sí Se Puede Cambiar" by Andres Useche 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 and Intergovernmental Affairs, which he accepted. This necessitated his character Lawrence Kutner being written out of the television series House. In his new role with the Obama administration, Penn served as a liaison with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. He went back to using his birth name, Kalpen Modi.

Having made a commitment before his employment at the White House, Penn left his post as Obama's associate director of public engagement on June 1, 2010, to return to his acting career.

Penn was a co-chair of Obama's reelection campaign. On September 3, 2012, he hosted coverage of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Penn's speech at the convention encouraged young people to register to vote and defended Obama's record.

On November 18, 2013, Obama appointed Penn to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. On February 28, 2014, Penn served as the Master of Ceremonies for the White House Student Film Festival.

Penn publicly supported Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic nomination. He campaigned for Hillary Clinton after she became the nominee.

In August 2017, Penn and the other members of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned in protest of President Donald Trump's remarks about the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Penn expressed interest in the messages of Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. He later expressed support for Joe Biden after he became the nominee. Penn also supported the 2024 presidential election campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

During the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, Penn appeared at rallies for candidate Zohran Mamdani, whose mother Mira Nair directed Penn in The Namesake. Penn later appeared alongside Nair and Mamdani in posts celebrating Diwali during the lead-up to the 2025 New York mayoral election.

Other ventures In 2008, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His course was titled "Images of Asian Americans in the Media".

In 2014, Penn was working on a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.

On January 2, 2017, Penn won the "MasterChef Celebrity Showdown" and donated the $25,000 cash prize to UNRWA, a United Nations relief and human development agency that supports Palestinian refugees. On January 28, 2017, following a racist comment from a user on Penn's Twitter feed, Penn crowd-funded a fundraiser for refugees of the Syrian Civil War and raised $813,533. This occurred during President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, which banned immigration to the United States from Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia regardless of visa status.

Personal life Penn is Hindu.

In October 2021, while promoting his memoir, You Can't Be Serious, Penn announced that he and his boyfriend of 11 years, named Josh, were engaged. In regard to his sexual orientation, Penn said that he had "discovered [his] own sexuality relatively late in life compared to many other people." However, he feels that "there's no timeline on this stuff. People figure their shit out at different times in their lives, so I'm glad I did when I did."

Filmography

Film Year Title RoleNotes 1998 Express: Aisle to Glory Jackie Newton 1999 Freshman Ajay 2001 American Desi Ajay Pandya 2002 Hector Kendal Cunningham Van Wilder Taj Mahal 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? Mohan "Mo" 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 Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj Taj Mahal Badalandabad 2007 Epic Movie Edward Pervertski 2008 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay Kumar Patel Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam Video2011 A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 2013 Triumph: The Lowell Pomerantz Story Jordan Tichenor Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain Motwani Dementamania Christian Van Burden 2014 The Sisterhood of Night Gordy Gambhir 2015 The Girl in the Photographs Peter Hemmings 2016 Better Off Single Brice 2017 Speech & Debate James Once Upon a Time in Venice Rajeesh The Layover Anuj 2018 The Ashram Nitin 2021 Untitled Horror Movie Mark 2022 Smile Dr. Morgan Desai 2024 The Underdoggs Ryan Kauffman The Imaginary Jinzan Voice; English dub What the F*ck Is My Password? Filming

Television Year Title RoleNotes1997 Boy Meets WorldAudience MemberEpisode: "Quiz Show" 1999 Brookfield Kumar Zimmerman TV movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer Hunt Episode: "Beer Bad" 2000 Sabrina the Teenage Witch Prajeeb Episode: "You Can't Twin" Spin City Buddy Episode: "The Spanish Prisoner" 2001 Angel Fez Boy Episode: "That Vision Thing" ER Narajan Episode: "The Longer You Stay" NYPD Blue Solomon Al-Ramai Episode: "Baby Love" The Agency Malek Episode: "Rules of the Game" 2003 All About the Andersons Dinesh Episode: "Pilot" Tru Calling Steven Episode: "Haunted" The Lonely Island Fred Episode: "Regarding Ardy” 2006 The Danny Comden Project Max TV movie 2007 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Henry Chanoor Episode: "Outsider" 24 Ahmed Amar Recurring role (season 6); 4 episodes 2007–2009, 2012 House Dr. Lawrence Kutner Main role (seasons 4–5); guest (season 8) 2011–2014 How I Met Your Mother Kevin 10 episodes 2013 The Big Brain Theory Host 8 episodes We Are Men Gil Bartis 7 episodes 2015 Battle Creek Detective Fontanelle White 11 episodes The Big Picture with Kal Penn Host 12 episodes 2016 New Girl Tripp 2 episodes Sanjay and Craig Greg Voice, episode: "JJ and Greg" Deadbeat Clyde 13 episodes 2016–2019 Designated Survivor Seth Wright Main role; 53 episodes 2016–2017 Superhuman Host 2018–2021 Fancy Nancy Mr. Ravi Singh / Mr. Singh Voice, 3 episodes 2019 The Big Bang Theory Dr. Kevin Campbell 3 episodes This Giant Beast That Is the Global Economy Host 8 episodes SpongeBob SquarePants Himself Episode: "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout" Sunnyside Garrett Modi Main role; also executive producer2020 Helpsters Water Wally Episode: "Basketball Brianna/Heart's Fish" The Girl in the Woods AD - Arthur Dean TV short Blue's Clues & You! Himself Episode: "Happy Birthday, Blue!" Kal Penn Approves This Message Host 6 episodes 2020–2021 It's Pony Fred Voice, 5 episodes 2020–2022 Mira, Royal Detective Mikku Voice, main role 2021 Clarice Shaan Tripathi Main role, 10 episodes PsBattles Live Himself Episode: "PsBattles Live: Kal Penn and Kate Flannery" Hot Mess Holiday Himself TV movie; also executive producer Money Hungry Host 2022 American Horror Story: NYC Mac Marzara 5 episodes The Santa Clauses Simon Choksi Main role 2023 The Daily Show Guest Host 8 episodes (week of Mar. 13 and Dec. 11 )Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Lawyer Voice, episode: "A League of Their Own" 2026 Industry Jay Jonah Atterbury 3 episodes

Video game