Here are a few more interesting facts about the actor …
He decided to act after playing the Tin Man in school
After his success as the weed-loving Kumar Patel in bro-comedy Harold & Kumar, the New Jersey-born actor starred in a slew of popular TV shows like House (2007), How I Met Your Mother (2011) and Designated Survivor (2016). He also got rave reviews for his portrayal as Gogol in the film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake (2006).
But what first inspired him to become an actor? Penn says it was the time he played The Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man in a school play. “I put the axe up and I turned to the audience and I said, ‘All you fine ladies out there …’ and I just did this pelvic thrust, and the crowd went nuts! And I was just, like, that feeling was interesting,” the actor told CBS News in October.
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He was a university guest lecturer
In 2008, Penn once served as a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania where he taught two undergraduate courses, Images of Asian Americans in the Media and Contemporary American Teen Films, according to the school’s website.
Penn also hosted a six-week miniseries called Kal Penn Approves This Message in 2020 as part of cable channel Freeform’s election-themed programming. The actor himself graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in theatre, film and television, and got his postgraduate degree in international security at Stanford University.
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He paused his acting career to work for Barack Obama
In 2009, Penn campaigned for – and then joined – the Obama administration as the principal associate editor at the White House Office of Public Engagement. Speaking to CBS, he said, “I remember my manager being very perplexed: ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not? It’s not a career shift. It’s not like I want to do this forever. Just, this is the time to do it, and I feel passionately that it’s something I want to do.’”
But he still squeezed in the time in 2011 to film A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas and 10 episodes of How I Met Your Mother.
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His grandparents once marched with Gandhi
It seems like fate for Penn to have an interest in politics, as it turns out that his late grandparents once marched alongside Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian independence movement.
“I don’t like politics; I like public service. And that goes back to my grandparents who marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement. And those were the dinner table conversations that we had,” the actor said during an interview with CBS.
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He came out in a new memoir
While promoting his new memoir You Can’t Be Serious, he opened up about his sexuality, coming out as gay. Penn also revealed that he is engaged to his partner of 11 years, Josh.
“I’ve always been very public with everybody I’ve personally interacted with. Whether it’s somebody that I meet at a bar, if Josh and I are out or we’re talking to friends,” he told People magazine, adding that he kept things quiet out of respect for his parents and for Josh, who tends to “shy away from the limelight”.
“I discovered my own sexuality relatively late in life compared to many other people. There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure [it] out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did,” he concluded.
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