Known for movies
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)
as Kumar
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
as Kumar Patel
Epic Movie (2007)
as Edward
Superman Returns (2006)
as Stanford
Short Info
| Net Worth | $15 million dollars |
| Date Of Birth | April 23, 1977 |
| Fact | Close friends with Olivia Wilde. |
Kal Penn was born in Montclair, New Jersey on April 23, 1977. His parents are Asmita and Suresh Modi, both of whom are Gujarati immigrants from India. He has one older brother, Sunil. Penn attended Marlboro Middle School in Marlboro Township, New Jersey, and graduated from Freehold Borough High School in 1995. He then went on to study at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he double majored in film and sociology.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjOCQI9rJG7/
Penn’s first acting role was in the 1998 film Express: Aisle to Glory. He has since appeared in numerous films and television shows, including the Harold & Kumar franchise, House, 24, and How I Met Your Mother. Penn has also done voice work for the animated series Kim Possible and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
In 2009, Penn left his acting career to serve as the Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement under President Barack Obama. He returned to acting in 2011, and has since appeared in the films The Namesake, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, and The Big Sick.
Penn is married to former Miss India USA 2006, Mira Rajput. They have two children together: a daughter named Mira and a son named Leo.
Penn’s net worth is estimated to be $30 million. His salary is not publicly known, but his earnings from the Harold & Kumar films alone total to $5 million.
I’m excited to share more about my book, You Can’t Be Serious https://t.co/sgcI1lHyQQ pic.twitter.com/zdf8e6KeBB
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) October 7, 2021
General Info
| Full Name | Kal Penn |
| Net Worth | $15 million dollars |
| Date Of Birth | April 23, 1977 |
| Height | 1.78 m |
| Profession | Film producer, Actor, Public servant |
| Education | Freehold Township High School, University of California, Los Angeles, Marlboro Middle School, Howell High School, Stanford University |
| Nationality | American |
Family
| Parents | Asmita Modi, Suresh Modi |
| Siblings | Pulin Modi |
Accomplishments
| Nominations | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo, MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Sequence, Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Rockstar Moment |
| Movies | Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, The Namesake, Epic Movie, Superman Returns, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, The Girl In The Photographs, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, American Desi, Son of the Mask, Bhopal: A Prayer fo... |
| TV Shows | Battle Creek, We Are Men, The Big Brain Theory, House, All About the Andersons, Designated Survivor, Independent Lens |
Social profile links
Quotes
| # | Quote |
|---|---|
| 1 | [in "New York" Magazine, discussing the dissimilarity between his real life and the "Kumar" character] I don't smoke weed. That's not something that I generally offer up in terms of talking points about the movie, because there are a lot of stoners that like the movie and you never want to make them feel like something's disingenuous. But for me, it was always a buddy comedy or, you know, if it was a stoner movie, it was probably equal parts a hamburger movie. |
| 2 | (2005) My friend and I will drive down to Tijuana just for lunch -- it's a 2 1/2-hour drive if you leave early. We go over the border and get these great tacos. There's no sign on the place, so we don't even know the name of it. Behind the shops where all the tourists go, there are these two alleys, and it's there. Half of the appeal, honestly, is that we're going to Mexico for tacos. We're here in Southern California and it's so close to another country, it's awesome that we can just go down there for lunch. |
| 3 | [in New York Magazine, commenting about his recurring role as a terrorist on TV's 24 (2001)] 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? |
Facts
| # | Fact |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kal Penn has both worked as a real-life White House staffer (as Associate Director of the Obama administration's White House Office of Public Engagement) and played one on TV (as Seth in the TV series Designated Survivor). |
| 2 | L.A. [October 2002] |
| 3 | Currently teaches a course at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. The course is entitled "Asian-Americans in the Media". [January 2008] |
| 4 | With Rachael Leigh Cook, he appeared at Keene State College; Keene, New Hampshire, on November 3rd to campaign for Barack Obama. [November 2008] |
| 5 | Played saxophone in his school's marching band. |
| 6 | Is best friends with 'John Cho', Ryan Reynolds and Neil Patrick Harris. |
| 7 | (Late April 2010) Was robbed at gunpoint at 1:20 a.m. in Washington D.C. His wallet and other belongings were stolen. |
| 8 | He was a member of the Freehold Township High School Forensics Speech & Debate Team. His lucky shirt is the team shirt which depicts the "Fighting Opi". |
| 9 | Close friends with Olivia Wilde. |
| 10 | The brother of one of Peta 2's senior coordinator Pulin Modi. |
| 11 | Kal Penn was invited for an audition for the role of "Gogol Ganguly" in the movie The Namesake (2006), because director Mira Nair's son, Zohan, and her agent's son, Sam, were big fans of Kal Penn's earlier movie - Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). |
| 12 | Accepted a position as the associate director in the White House's Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs [April 7, 2009]. |
| 13 | In April 2009, Penn told Entertainment Weekly Magazine that the writers killed off his character on House M.D. (2004) because he had asked to be allowed to leave the show to go work for the Barack Obama Administration as the Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Liaison. |
| 14 | Is in the process of earning a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University. |
| 15 | During the Spring 2008 semester, he was an adjunct faculty member in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (familiarly called "Penn") in Philadelphia. He taught a lecture course, "Images of Asian Americans in the Media," and a seminar, "Contemporary American Teen Films," both of which were cross-listed in the Cinema Studies department. His faculty listing on the Asian American Studies Program website gave his name as Kalpen Modi (his real name) first, with his stage name, Kal Penn, in parentheses. |
| 16 | Studied acting under the same teacher (Reynold Forman) as Anthony Bradford. |
| 17 | His favorite book is "The Namesake" and used to check into hotels under the pseudonym of "Gogol Ganguli", the lead character of the book. When found out that Mira Nair was making a film out of it, despite her having already cast an actor in the part, Penn lobbied for the role and eventually won it. |
| 18 | Was offered a part in "Planet Terror," the Robert Rodriguez segment of Grindhouse (2007), but turned it down due to the conflicting shoot of The Namesake (2006). |
| 19 | Began using the name Kal Penn, a variation on his first name Kalpen, to get more roles; he believed that his difficult foreign name would scare away potential employers. |
| 20 | Attended UCLA. |
| 21 | Lives in same Los Angeles apartment building as director Christian Levatino. |
| 22 | Although he attended Howell High School's performing arts program, he later transferred to Freehold Township (NJ) High School, where he graduated in 1995. |
| 23 | Is of Gujarati Indian descent. |
| 24 | When he was in 8th grade he was in a school production of the musical "The Wiz". |
| 25 | His father is an engineer and his mother, who has a master's in chemistry, worked as a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company. |
| 26 | Has one younger brother. |
| 27 | Met future Where's the Party Yaar? (2003) co-star Datta Dave and Dave's current financial adviser Mihir Upadhyaya during college at UCLA. He assisted Dave in his pursuit of an acting career. |
| 28 | Is a vegetarian, contrary to the role that he plays in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). |
| 29 | Once directed Jason Allentoff in a short film for a college project. |
| 30 | He attended the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Howell High School in Farmingdale, New Jersey where he went though an intense study of the arts in acting, dance/movement, and vocal training. |
| 31 | He and the other students were banned from using the word "like" in his acting classes, this was to make them sound more intelligent during auditions. |
| 32 | Born in New Jersey, now resides in L.A. |
Pictures
Movies
Actor
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speech & Debate | 2017 | post-production | James |
| Once Upon a Time in Venice | 2017 | post-production | |
| The Ashram | 2016 | post-production | Nitin |
| The Layover | 2016/I | post-production | Anuj |
| Designated Survivor | 2016-2017 | TV Series | Seth Wright |
| Better Off Single | 2016 | Brice | |
| New Girl | 2016 | TV Series | Tripp |
| Deadbeat | 2016 | TV Series | Clyde |
| Mack & Moxy | 2016 | TV Series | Admirable Kal |
| The Girl in the Photographs | 2015 | Peter Hemmings | |
| Emily & Tim | 2015 | Tim (Segment 2) | |
| Battle Creek | 2015 | TV Series | Fontanelle White |
| Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain | 2014 | Motwani | |
| The Sisterhood of Night | 2014 | Gordy Gambhir | |
| How I Met Your Mother | 2011-2014 | TV Series | Kevin |
| We Are Men | 2013 | TV Series | Gil Bartis / Gil Brooks / Gil |
| Dementamania | 2013 | Christian Van Burden | |
| House M.D. | 2007-2012 | TV Series | Dr. Lawrence Kutner |
| Prairie Dogs | 2012 | TV Movie | Neil |
| The Daily Show | 2011 | TV Series | Kumar |
| Lowe's CEO Responds to the All-American Muslim Controversy | 2011 | Short | Assistant |
| A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas | 2011 | Kumar | |
| Harold & Kumar's Yuletide Jamz | 2011 | Short | |
| Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam | 2008 | Video short | Kumar |
| Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay | 2008 | Kumar | |
| Two Sisters | 2008 | TV Movie | |
| The Call | 2007 | TV Movie | Ian |
| Epic Movie | 2007 | Edward | |
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | 2007 | TV Series | Henry Chanoor |
| 24 | 2007 | TV Series | Ahmed Amar |
| Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj | 2006 | Taj | |
| Deck the Halls | 2006 | Amit Sayid - Satellite Computer Tech (uncredited) | |
| The Namesake | 2006 | Gogol / Nikhil | |
| Superman Returns | 2006 | Stanford | |
| The Danny Comden Project | 2006 | TV Movie | Max |
| Bachelor Party Vegas | 2006 | Video | Z-Bob |
| Man About Town | 2006 | Alan Fineberg | |
| Dancing in Twilight | 2005 | Sam | |
| Sueño | 2005 | Raj | |
| A Lot Like Love | 2005 | Jeeter | |
| Son of the Mask | 2005 | Jorge | |
| Awesometown | 2005 | TV Short | Guy Reading Newspaper |
| Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle | 2004 | Kumar Patel | |
| Ball & Chain | 2004 | Bobby | |
| Homeland Security | 2004 | TV Movie | Harrison |
| American Made | 2003 | Short | |
| Love Don't Cost a Thing | 2003 | Kenneth Warman | |
| Tru Calling | 2003 | TV Series | Steven |
| Cosmopolitan | 2003 | TV Movie | Vandana's Fiancee |
| All About the Andersons | 2003 | TV Series | Doctor George |
| Malibu's Most Wanted | 2003 | Hadji Amerislani | |
| Where's the Party Yaar? | 2003 | Mo (Mohan Bakshi) | |
| Regarding Ardy | 2003 | TV Movie | Fred |
| Hector | 2002 | Short | Kendal Cunningham |
| Badger | 2002 | Sanjay | |
| Van Wilder | 2002 | Taj Mahal Badalandabad | |
| The Agency | 2001 | TV Series | Malek |
| NYPD Blue | 2001 | TV Series | Solomon Al-Ramai |
| ER | 2001 | TV Series | Narajan |
| Angel | 2001 | TV Series | Young Man in Fez |
| American Desi | 2001 | Ajay Pandya | |
| Spin City | 2000 | TV Series | Buddy |
| Sabrina, the Teenage Witch | 2000 | TV Series | Prajeeb |
| Brookfield | 1999 | TV Movie | Kumar Zimmerman (Series Regular) |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 1999 | TV Series | Hunt |
| Freshmen | 1999 | Ajay | |
| Express: Aisle to Glory | 1998 | Short | Jackie Newton |
Producer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vice News | 2015 | TV Series documentary producer - 1 episode | |
| The Big Picture with Kal Penn | 2015 | TV Mini-Series documentary producer - 6 episodes | |
| The Big Brain Theory | 2013 | TV Series producer - 8 episodes | |
| Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj | 2006 | executive producer | |
| Hector | 2002 | Short associate producer |
Miscellaneous
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designated Survivor | 2016 | TV Series consultant - 10 episodes | |
| Vice News | 2015 | TV Series documentary host - 1 episode | |
| The Big Picture with Kal Penn | 2015 | TV Mini-Series documentary host | |
| Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle | 2004 | production assistant: second unit, New Jersey - as Kalpen Modi |
Soundtrack
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| How I Met Your Mother | 2012 | TV Series performer - 1 episode | |
| Regarding Ardy | 2003 | TV Movie performer: "Tiny Dancer" |
Self
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| To Tell the Truth | 2017 | TV Series | Himself - Panelist |
| Masterchef | 2017 | TV Series | Himself |
| Live with Kelly and Michael | 2016 | TV Series | Himself |
| 20/20 | 2016 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| The Daily Show | 2016 | TV Series | Himself |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | 2016 | TV Series | Himself |
| Match Game | 2016 | TV Series | Himself - Celebrity Panelist |
| Join or Die with Craig Ferguson | 2016 | TV Series | Himself - Special Guest |
| Superhuman | 2016 | TV Special | Himself - Host |
| The Soup | 2015 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Big Picture with Kal Penn | 2015 | TV Mini-Series documentary | Himself - Host / Himself |
| Today | 2015 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore | 2015 | TV Series | Himself - Panelist |
| Last Call with Carson Daly | 2013-2015 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson | 2007-2015 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Real Time with Bill Maher | 2014 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Dish Nation | 2014 | TV Series | |
| Next Time on Lonny | 2014 | TV Series | Himself |
| The Queen Latifah Show | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Hollywood Game Night | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Panelist |
| The Hour | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Big Brain Theory | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Host |
| CBS This Morning | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Larry King Now | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| CBS This Morning: Saturday | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Watch What Happens: Live | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Late Night with Jimmy Fallon | 2011-2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Nikki & Sara Live | 2013 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Future with Emily Heller | 2013 | Video short | Himself |
| Top Gear USA | 2012 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| Up Close with Carrie Keagan | 2008-2011 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| 1st Look | 2011 | TV Series | Himself - Interviewee |
| The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | 2004-2011 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Scream Awards 2011 | 2011 | TV Special | Himself |
| The Download with Jordan Rubin | 2011 | TV Mini-Series | Himself - Guest |
| 10 Minutes | 2010 | Short | Himself |
| We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial | 2009 | TV Special | Himself |
| House, M.D., Season Four: New Beginnings | 2008 | Video documentary short | Kutner - Dr Lawrence |
| Spike Guys Choice | 2008 | TV Movie | Himself - Host |
| Late Night with Conan O'Brien | 2008 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Larry King Live | 2008 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| 2007 AZN Asian Excellence Awards | 2007 | TV Special | Himself |
| In Bed with Carrie | 2007 | TV Series | Himself |
| Fuse Celebrity Playlist | 2006 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| Requiem for Krypton: Making 'Superman Returns' | 2006 | Video documentary | Himself (uncredited) |
| The Young Hollywood Awards | 2006 | TV Special | Himself |
| Back in Blue: The 'Superman Returns' Movie Special | 2006 | TV Movie documentary | Himself |
| Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List | 2005 | TV Series | Himself |
| HBO First Look | 2005 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| I Love the '90s: Part Deux | 2005 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| John Cho & Kal Penn: The Backseat Interview | 2005 | Video short | Himself |
| Howard Stern | 2004 | TV Series | Himself |
| G-Phoria 2004 | 2004 | TV Movie documentary | Himself - Presenter |
| Jimmy Kimmel Live! | 2004 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| 2004 MTV Movie Awards | 2004 | TV Special | Himself |
| Independent Lens | 2003-2004 | TV Series documentary | Vandana's Fiancee / Jagdesh |
| The Making of 'Love Don't Cost a Thing' | 2004 | Video documentary short | Himself |
Archive Footage
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late Night with Seth Meyers | 2015 | TV Series | Himself - Heads Up America PSA |
Awards
Nominated Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Actor | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | House M.D. (2004) |
| 2005 | MTV Movie Award | MTV Movie Awards | Best On-Screen Team | Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) |
| 2005 | MTV Movie Award | MTV Movie Awards | Best Musical Performance | Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) |
| 2005 | Teen Choice Award | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Rockstar Moment | Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) |
| 2005 | Stinker Award | The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | Most Annoying Fake Accent: Male | Son of the Mask (2005) |
Source: IMDb, Wikipedia
