Kal Penn

Kalpen Suresh Modi, known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, comedian, and civil servant. As an actor, he is known for his role in portraying Lawrence Kutner on the television program House and the character Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar film series. He is also recognized for his performance in the film The Namesake. In addition, Penn has taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program.

In April 2009, Penn joined the Obama administration as the Principal Associate Editor in the White House Office of Public Engagement. 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 movie'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 served as a consultant on the show. Additionally, he served as the host of 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 called Kal Penn Approves This Message.

Penn's feature film debut came in 1998 in Express: Aisle to Glory. He has since appeared in 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, and an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls.

Penn says that he derived his acting name, Kal Penn, from 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." As a result, 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, he appeared in the spoof comedy Epic Movie and 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 the fall of 2007, Penn joined the Fox medical drama House cast as a fellowship applicant. E! reported that Penn had signed on as a regular on the show along with Olivia Wilde and Peter Jacobson, which was confirmed in the plot of the episode "Games".

Penn continued with the series through to the episode "Simple Explanation," aired on April 6, 2009. He made an additional appearance as Lawrence Kutner on the fifth-season finale, "Both Sides Now," 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.