Kal Penn speaking at this university in 2008.
Kal Penn is one of the most famous Indian-American actors in Hollywood, if not the most famous. He’s known for his title role in the Harold & Kumar franchise, as well as parts on television shows House and How I Met Your Mother.
But he’s also stepped where many actors haven’t: through the halls of the White House.
“I don’t have the most traditional path,” Penn said at the beginning of his talk in the Stamp Student Union Grand Ballroom on Thursday.
Penn spoke about his life balancing film and television screens and the Obama administration to a mostly full audience at “An Evening with Kal Penn,” sponsored by Student Entertainment Events.
“I hope you’ll never feel like you’ll have to choose between things that people tell you are mutually exclusive,” Penn said.
He worked for the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011 as the associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement — with a short break in the middle to film the third Harold & Kumar movie — and returned to acting in 2011, when he joined the cast of How I Met Your Mother for nine episodes. He will soon appear on Battle Creek, a television show created by House’s David Shore and Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan about cops in Battle Creek, Mich.
Acting is his first love, Penn said, and his favorite role was in The Namesake, the film adaptation of the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri — a part that was distinct from his mostly comedic resume before that point.
Penn said he enjoyed working at the White House because he was contributing to an administration he believed in and working in a rigorous and diverse environment. He focused on issues important to young Americans, he said, including the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, financial aid and Iraq veterans’ issues.
“I’d been working on the president’s campaign for about two years,” Penn said in an interview before his talk. “After he had won and I had the opportunity to serve in the White House, I kind of thought, ‘You can’t really say no, right?’ What do you say, ‘I’m playing a fake doctor; I can’t help you pass actual health care reform’?”
When asked about his impact on the Indian-American community, Penn joked, “Do I have to do my whole speech in Hindi now?”
He talked about the Indian-American community’s views on careers in the arts after coming to the country in search of a better life. The representation of diversity on screen has changed in the past few years, Penn said.
“The bigger challenge was that there was not very much support — and that’s an understatement — in the Indian-American community for these fields,” Penn said. “It’s changing, but whether it was the folks who were my parents’ generation or even my peers at UCLA, there was a huge discouragement of anything related to the arts, particularly anything that wasn’t pre-med or engineering.”
He called the way his community looked at his career goals as “a nice opportunity to learn very quickly how to stick to something you’re really passionate about doing.”
Penn’s background struck a chord with many students.
Sahleen Deol, a freshman computer science major, called Penn “an inspiration for especially the Asian community.”
“He’s doing big things,” she said. “He’s motivating us to go big and explore our interests in whatever we like or want to do.”
Arsh Agarwal, a senior biology and computer science major, was sitting in the front row, sporting a free SEE shirt with Kal Penn’s face in the style of Obama’s “Hope” poster from the 2008 election.
“He’s like a professor, but 100 times cooler,” said Agarwal, speaking about Penn’s diverse list of accomplishments.
Penn told stories about taking on responsibilities in the White House and bumping into President Obama when he wasn’t at his most cleanshaven — the president remembered that and called Penn out about it the next day, jokingly — and his sense of optimism from his time as a part of the administration. Penn also talked about moments of inspiration and fortune, such as taking his first feature film job, which he was initially uncertain about but probably led to him landing a title role in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
The 20-minute question-and-answer session following his talk included questions ranging from whether his background in acting helped him at the White House to his views on marijuana (he doesn’t have a problem with it) to “Are you single?” (he’s not).
He ended his speech by encouraging audience members to live their lives and discover the world.
“Things will change because of people like you,” he said.
