Kal Penn

Kal Penn
Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement
In office April 2009 – July 2011
President	Barack Obama
Personal details
Born	Kalpen Suresh Modi (1977-04-23) April 23, 1977 (age 39) Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation	Actor, film producer, civil servant

Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977) is an American actor, producer, chef, and civil servant best known by his stage name Kal Penn. As an actor, he is known for his role portraying Lawrence Kutner on the television program House, as well as the character Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar film series. He is also recognized for his performance in the critically acclaimed film The Namesake. Additionally, Penn has taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturer.

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. 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 hit television series How I Met Your Mother.

Currently, he stars in the role of Seth Wright in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor.

Penn was born in Montclair, New Jersey to Indian immigrant parents. His mother, Asmita, is a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company, and his father, Suresh Modi, is an engineer. 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.

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