Kal Penn Biography

Kal Penn born Kalpen Suresh Modi, is an American actor, comedian, producer, and former civil servant. Penn is known for his role portraying Lawrence Kutner on the television program House.

He is also known for being one of the lead casts in the film series Harold & Kumar. He played the character, Kumar Patel. Kal is also recognized for his performance in the critically acclaimed film The Namesake. Apart from acting, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturer.

Kal Penn Age

The comedian was born on 23 April 1977 in Montclair, New Jersey, United States. As of 2019, he is 42 years old.

Kal Penn Nationality

Kal Penn has an American nationality

Kal Penn Family

He is the son of Suresh Modi, his father and Asmita Modi, his mother. He is also brother to Pulin Modi.

Kal Penn Wife | Kal Penn Married | Kal Penn Girlfriend | Kal Penn Gay | Kal Penn Obama Affair

Kal maintains a low profile of his relationship status which has raised issues like if he’s gay or not. These are only imaginations and he is yet to come to the open to clarify the matter. This information will be updated soon.

Kal Penn New Show

His latest show is titled Sunnyside. The television series storyline is as follows:

Actor Kal Penn

His first featured film debut was in 1988. He was featured in the television series called Express: Aisle to Glory. This came a breakthrough for him and has since been featured in movies like American Desi, Van Wilder, the final episode of The Lonely Island, Malibu’s Most Wanted, A Lot Like Love, Dude, Where’s the Party?, Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Superman Returns, Epic Movie, The Namesake, the Harold & Kumar series. He also has an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls.

Kal Penn Movies And TV Shows | Kal Penn Filmography

The following are his early movies:

• 1998 Express: Aisle to Glory
• 1999 Freshman
• 2001 American Desi

The following are his 2002 movies:

• Hector
• Van Wilder
• Badger

The following are his 2003 movies:

• Cosmopolitan
• Love Don’t Cost a Thing
• Malibu’s Most Wanted
• Dude, Where’s the Party?

The following are his 2004 movies:

• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
• Ball & Chain
• Homeland Security

The following are his 2005 movies:

• Dancing in Twilight
• Son of the Mask
• A Lot like Love
• Sueño

The following are his 2006 movies:

• Man About Town
• Bachelor Party Vegas
• The Namesake
• Superman Returns
• Deck The Halls
• Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj

The following are his 2007 movies:

• Epic Movie

The following are his 2008 movies:

• Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
• Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam

The following are his 2011 movies:

• A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

The following are his 2013 movies:

• Triumph: The Lowell Pomerantz Story
• Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain
• Dementamania

The following are his other movies:

• 2014 The Sisterhood of Night
• 2015 The Girl In The Photographs
• 2016 Better Off Single

The following are his 2017 movies:

• Speech & Debate
• Once Upon a Time in Venice
• The Layover

The following are his 2018 movies:

• 2018 The Ashram

The following are his 1999 television shows:

• Brookfield
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The following are his 2000 television show

• Sabrina the Teenage Witch
• Spin City

The following are his 2001 television show

• Angel
• ER
• NYPD Blue
• The Agency

The following are his 2003 television show

• All About the Andersons
• Tru Calling
• The Lonely Island

The following are his 2006 television show

• The Danny Comden Project

The following are his 2007 television show

• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• 24
• 2007–2009, 2012 House

The following are his 2011 television show

• 2011–2012, 2014 How I Met Your Mother

The following are his 2015 television show

• The Big Brain Theory
• We Are Men

The following are his 2015 television show

• Battle Creek
• The Big Picture with Kal Penn

The following are his 2016 television show

• New Girl
• Deadbeat
• 2016–2019 Designated Survivor
• 2016–2017Superhuman

The following are his 2019 television show

• The Big Bang Theory
• This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy
• Sunnyside

Kal Penn House | Kal Penn Leaves House

At fictional Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey, prickly genius Dr. Gregory House tackles health mysteries as would a medical Sherlock Holmes, all the while playing mind games with colleagues that include his best friend, oncologist James Wilson. House, an acerbic infectious disease specialist, solves medical puzzles with the help of a team of young diagnosticians. Flawless instincts and unconventional thinking help earn House great respect, despite his brutal honesty and antisocial tendencies.

First episode date: 16 November 2004
Final episode date: 21 May 2012
Theme song: Teardrop
Writers: David Shore, Peter Blake, Doris Egan, Lawrence Kaplow,

Kal Penn White House | Kal Penn Obama | Kal Penn And Obama | Kal Penn Barack Obama | Kal Penn And Barack Obama | Kal Penn With Obama | Kal Penn Obama Administration | Kal Penn Left House | Kal Penn House Death | House Death Kal Penn Obama | Kal Penn Quits House

In April 2009, Penn joined the Obama administration as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement. This necessitated that his TV character, Lawrence Kutner, be written out of 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 television series How I Met Your Mother.

Kal Penn Death | Did Kal Penn Die

Kal is still alive and is working on new projects.

Kal Penn Designated Survivor

As a lower-level cabinet member, Tom Kirkman never imagined something would happen that would catapult him to the oval office. When a devastating attack on the night of the State of the Union address claims the lives of the president and most of the Cabinet, the Housing and Urban Development secretary — who was named the designated survivor in case of such an event — finds himself promoted to leader of the free world. Suddenly thrust into his new position of power, Kirkman struggles to keep the country from dissolving into chaos and must adjust to his new normal, unaware of what fresh horrors may await the United States.

First episode date: 21 September 2016
Production location: Toronto
Program creator: David Guggenheim
Networks: Netflix, American Broadcasting Company

John Cho Kal Penn | John Cho And Kal Penn

Kal Penn Personal Life

He maintains a low profile hence not much is known about him. This information will soon be updated.

Kal Penn Comedy Movies

• Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
• Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj
• National Lampoon’s Van Wilder
• The Namesake
• Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
• Epic Movie
• A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
• Son of the Mask
• Malibu’s Most Wanted
• Love Don’t Cost a Thing
• Superman Returns
• A Lot like Love
• American Desi
• The Girl In The Photographs
• Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain
• Dude, Where’s the Party?
• Bachelor Party Vegas
• Once Upon a Time in Venice
• Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam
• The Sisterhood of Night
• The Ashram
• Man About Town
• Better Off Single
• Speech & Debate
• Dancing in Twilight
• Ball & Chain
• Express: Aisle to Glory
• The Problem with Apu
• Dementamania
• Emily & Tim
• Sueño
• Homeland Security
• Awesometown
• Cosmopolitan
• Two Sisters
• Freshmen
• The Call
• Hector
• Badger

Kal Penn 24

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?

Kal Penn Eye

Kal Penn Facebook

Kal Penn Twitter

Tweets by kalpenn

Kal Penn Instagram

Kal Penn Interview

The creators of Sunnyside on making patriotic comedy in less than patriotic times

Sunnyside comes to NBC with a timely premise: Premiering at a time when knob-headed White House ghoul Stephen Miller is attempting to roll back the number of refugees admitted to the United States, just weeks after Trump immigration czar Ken Cuccinelli did some unsolicited punch-up on “The New Colossus,” here’s a sitcom about a tired, poor, huddled mass yearning to breathe free.

But the bones of Sunnyside are timeless: It’s the latest, Michael Schur-produced rendition of a treasured sitcom standard, in which a down-on-his-luck protagonist reluctantly falls in with a ragtag ensemble that just might wind up teaching him as much he teaches them.

In this case, that protagonist is Kal Penn as Garrett Modi, a former political hotshot who burned out during his time on the New York City Council; at his lowest ebb, he winds up being adopted as the tutor of a group studying for their U.S. citizenship test, whose ranks include Joel Kim Booster, Moses Storm, Diana-Maria Riva, Samba Schutte, and Poppy Liu. Along with fellow Sunnyside creator Matt Murray, Penn sat down with The A.V. Club at this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, to discuss their show, their country, and their search for “the funniest people possible to play the people we had written, period.”

AVC: What does the idea of America represent to the characters of Sunnyside?

Kal Penn: I think hope and freedom and limitless possibility—the universal definition that we all think of. That’s not new, that goes back to the founding of America. But five years ago, when I was thinking of this concept—it seems almost flippant to say, “Oh, I love comedy and I love America”—but wanting to make a patriotic comedy was important because it’s that feel-good thing that you feel when you would watch Head Of The Class or Fresh Prince. [Those shows weren’t] about being American—but that idea that all things are possible, that aspirational theme is what we’re bringing to the show.

Matt Murray: We obviously identify with Kal’s character on the show, as someone who never really sat and thought about how lucky you are just to be born here. So when you actually see the amount of work and torture that people have to go through just to get through this process that’s incredibly byzantine and almost intentionally difficult, it’s like, “Oh, they must really love it if they have to go through all that just to get this thing that I was given.”

AVC: How do you think the last five years have shifted that idea? What is it like making a comedy about patriotism at a time when a lot of people aren’t feeling particularly patriotic, and maybe even feel like some of the ideals that are being expressed by the show are being exploited by people in power?

KP: I thought about that before [Matt and I] had the chance to sit down. I thought, “Do I want to change my pitch at all?” Because my pitch to myself was “I love making people laugh, I love America—love what it means, love that it’s a unifying, hopeful place.” And I thought, “No. The premise of the show is never meant to be a reaction to anything,” whether it was a reaction to the five years preceding the five years that I had been sitting with the idea or the five years that came after. To me, a strong show comes from strong characters, and the idea of America or the idea of something hopeful doesn’t change with our short-term politics.

MM: It’s impossible to ignore what’s happening, but at the same time people who are going through this process, that goal looks the same. The politics will change here and there, but the goal’s always the same. That’s how we center ourselves.

AVC: Kal, how does your character, Garrett, see himself?

KP: He’s reassessing that very quickly, the first few episodes especially. He did see himself as untouchable and thought that he was helping people, although he wasn’t doing anything. He got elected to New York City Council as this rock star, right out of school. I think, for the first year, he had the idea that he would do more work, but realized that the bureaucracy was too difficult—and also there were too many shiny things that were being offered, like Knicks tickets and Madonna’s birthday party. Things that were way too cool for him to pass up until that just became his life. And making persuasive speeches and glad-handing and things that he clearly had a skill for, but were hollow inside, because there was never any follow-up. He was so consumed by that world, until he thought, “Yeah, I can bribe a cop with a million dollars while I’m wasted and puking on his car on the BQE. And that’ll be fine.” And that was his awakening, when he got kicked out of city council. He’s now rediscovering what that means. He has no skill set—that he knows he has—except for being able to help people talk.

AVC: Will there be more flashbacks to Garrett’s time at the top, or are you going to keep that more theoretical and something that informs the character?

MM: They would have to be practical. We’re not doing Scrubs-style flashbacks. There might be footage or something. But no: It’ll be references and people from his past will come back.

AVC: Do you see Garrett running for office again somewhere down the line?

MM: That is built in. I think he’s a character who’s learning to actually help people and do the hard work of making slow, incremental change. At some point, yes, maybe he will get the opportunity to get back in there, and he’ll have to decide, “Will I be tempted to go back to my old ways? Or is this an opportunity to actually do it right this time?”

KP: I remember one of the early conversations that we had about whether that happens, or the route that it takes, that I’m really fascinated by in real life: There’s no shortage of politicians on either side of the aisle who are very good at talking and don’t actually do anything. Like, “Wow, I’m amazed that you didn’t answer that question but still managed to talk for three and a half minutes.” Is Garrett more impactful as an elected official? Or is he more impactful not as an elected official—working at a non-profit, working with a group of people. I think it’s a question a lot of people ask themselves in real life, and often make the wrong choice when they decide whether or not to run for office. I’m always intrigued by that, so I think there will always be a flavor of that when he makes that decision ultimately.

AVC: What were you looking for in the cast? Allison Jones was your casting director, as she has been for a lot of Michael Schur-related projects. How did she figure into the conversation and help you connect with the right people?

MM: She’s a legend. There’s a reason she is the best, and when she chose to do this project, it was the greatest honor.

KP: We couldn’t believe it. We were texting each other like crazy like, “Dude, I think we got Allison Jones.” “No we didn’t.” “Really, she’s willing to do it?” “Is she doing it herself, or does she have a big company?” “No, dude, she’s doing it herself.”

MM: She does the legwork, man. It’s incredible. That process was incredibly fun and easy. We saw so many people who were so good, and then each one of these actors, there’s just something that as soon as they started talking, it was like, “Yep. It’s a no-brainer.” They were all our first choices.

AVC: Did what you were looking for change at all based on who auditioned?

KP: We were looking for the funniest people possible to play the people we had written, period. Obviously, there’s some specificity to the way they were written in earlier drafts. We were very open—for example, Joel [Kim Booster] and Poppy [Liu], the idea amalgamated a little bit when we had folks from two different ethnicities who happened to be playing Asian immigrants. This idea that “everybody looks the same” is messed up, and Hollywood has a history of doing that, and we obviously don’t want to do that. And we also want to ground our characters. Luckily we’re making a super-bizzaro world, in terms of how [Booster’s and Liu’s characters, Jun Ho and Mei Lin] got to America, and their crazy-rich parents: The dad lives in international waters. We don’t quite know what his ethnicity is yet. They probably have different moms. They may have been engineered in lab? We don’t know for sure. Things like that gave us a lot more openness and opportunity to bring incredibly talented actors and comedians to the table.

The people reading for Jun Ho, a lot of folks walked in with very cool jackets and slim jeans—sort of the frat-boy version of this character. And then Joel walks in with capri pants and a very tight shirt, and crushes this character in ways that we hadn’t imagined.

MM: It wasn’t written that way, certainly.

KP: And he walked out of the room, and I think Allison Jones was like, “If I may? You don’t let somebody like that walk away.” The way it was scripted, great—I love the pilot. But then you look at how [each member of the cast] brought something to the table.

MM: Same with Samba [Schutte], too. That part was originally written as, like, a Somali guy, but Samba’s from Ethiopia, so you go back and tweak it to that actor. We didn’t want anybody playing anything that they’re not. We didn’t want anyone to have an accent that’s not their natural accent. We want to make those things as real and true as we can.

KP: The fact that five of the seven of them are stand-up comics speaks volumes about their quick thinking and how they ground their improv.

AVC: The show’s dealing with a lot of serious, grounded stuff, but it also has some wacky angles to it: The stuff with Jun Ho and Mei Lin’s dad, but also all of the jobs that Diana-Maria Riva’s character holds down. How are you balancing that? How do the different sides of the show influence one another?

MM: I come from a world of heightened reality: Parks And Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Community, The Good Place. Jason Mendoza in The Good Place has an insane backstory in Jacksonville. Things like that always make me laugh. So yeah: Their dad is a weird, shadowy billionaire—you can have a lot of fun with that. The jobs thing: It’s a tool we have in our back pocket. It’s not going to be used as frequently as it was in the pilot. But she can always go like, “Oh, I used to work there.” [Riva’s character, Griselda] has a good second episode. We learn a little bit more about her personal interests away from her jobs.

Source: TV/AV Club

Kal Penn News

‘Sunnyside’: Kal Penn’s presence as Garrett Modi works wonders for the immigrant comedy series

The new NBC comedy series is all set to roll out and fans have more than one reason to be excited about it. Centered around Garrett Modi, the youngest New York City Councilman, it revolves around the struggle of immigrants amidst the power and glamour of politics and stars Kal Penn in the lead.

It seems like the actor’s presence works wonders for the series as no sooner was the teaser released, fans couldn’t stop talking about the show on Twitter.

“One significance about #Sunnyside is that Kal Penn is the lead. Typically, on network TV shows w/multicultural casts, the main lead or co-leads are white and the PoC are supporting. Here’s to more shows that feature PoC leads & diverse ensembles that resemble many of our lives!” sociologist and pop culture expert Nancy Wang Yuen wrote on Twitter.

Another one posted, “Staying on NBC, Kal Penn is the lead on a new sitcom — ‘Sunnyside’, which coincidentally, is where my parents and brother first lived when they moved to the US in the early 70s.”

Not only does Penn star in the show, but he also wrote the pilot and executive produced it along with writer-producer Matt Murray, Michael Schur, David Miner, and Dan Spilo. The “patriotic comedy” is majorly Penn’s brainchild as even the lead character’s name is etched after Penn’s birth name Kalpen Suresh Modi.

Pondering over the names of the characters in the show, one user wrote, “Kal Penn’s #Sunnyside character is named Garrett after Mrs. Garrett and his character’s sister is named Mallory after Mallory Keaton. Their parents should be #TCA19 members.”

Another Twitter user posted: “Kal Penn’s Sunnyside maybe NBC’s best hope for fall 2019.” One user posted, “I’ve seen more than a few on-air commercials for ‘Sunnyside’, but they all just say ‘from the creators of ‘Brooklyn 99’ and ‘The Good Place’ or ‘starring Kal Penn’ which, frankly, was enough to make me plan to check out the first episode at least.”

However, not everyone is looking at the show in a positive light. “Sunnyside on NBC 9/17. It will be an anti-Republican program. Kal Penn is big-time NeverTrumper. I won’t be watching,” one tweet read.

As the comedy series rolls out on September 26 every Thursday at 9.30 pm on NBC, it will be interesting to see how Kal Penn’s character Garrett Modi is rounded out during the course of the show and whether he gets back his place in the political scenario or not.

Source: Meaww

Kal Penn TV Series Draws Endorsement Plea From BK Council Hopeful

A Kensington-born candidate for City Council wants to be the real-life incarnation of a new sitcom character — so she’s asking for help from the start of the show.

Shahana Hanif — who would be the first South Asian Council member if elected to represent the 39th District — asked for an endorsement from the comedian Kal Penn Thursday night as his new comedy “Sunnyside” premiered on NBC.

Hanif said she is “excited” about the series featuring Penn as a South Asian former council member who “finds his calling” helping a group of immigrants in Queens, according to Deadline.

“[T]his remains fictional on & off-screen,” Hanif said on Twitter, adding a thumbs-down emoji. “I’m excited 4 our campaign & future in which I am elected as our city’s 1st. Kal, will u endorse my campaign on premiere night?”

Hanif predicted that during the 2020 and 2021 local elections, “we will see an upsurge in candidates of color, including many South Asians.”

“In the history of our city, we’ve not seen a South Asian in our electorate — and we have certainly not seen a Bangladeshi Muslim woman in the City Council,” she told Patch in a statement. “We are asking Kal for an endorsement as a symbolic gesture, and to raise a conversation about the state of representation in our electorate, in a city that is run by working-class immigrants and people of color.”

Supporters of Hanif, a disability rights activist of Bangladeshi descent, joined in with their own entreaties to Penn, a former Obama administration staffer who rose to fame with the “Harold & Kumar” movies.

“Let’s make more history by electing an actual REAL LIFE south Asian councilmember in NYC! @kalpenn endorse @ShahanaFromBK” tweeted political staffer Julie Ae Kim.

“Hey, @kalpenn congrats on your new show #Sunnyside,” Planned Parenthood communications staffer Senti Sojwal said on Twitter. “We’d love to see your support for incredible Bangladeshi activist @ShahanaFromBK who is running for city council in Kensington! She’s fiercely committed to our communities & making the system work for all of us.”

Hanif is running to succeed Council Member Brad Lander, a Democrat who is term-limited and running for city comptroller. His district includes Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and parts of Flatbush, Kensington as well as other adjacent neighborhoods.

Hanif isn’t the only local political player to notice the show.

Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents Sunnyside, posted a picture of himself and Penn on Twitter after watching the first episode of the series.

“Great fun to watch the premiere episode of @NBCSunnyside with @kalpenn & his team tonight!” he said. “The show was not only funny but also poignant! #Sunnyside and #Queens, home to so many immigrant stories, is shown correctly as a home for all!”

Source: Patch