Kalpen Suresh Modi (Gujarati: કલ્પેન સુરેશ મોદી born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration.

In April 2009, Penn joined the Obama administration as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement as liaison for outreach to Asian Pacific Americans and arts communities.

Penn was born as Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey on April 23, 1977, to Indian Hindu immigrant parents from Gujarat.

[8][9] His mother, Asmita Bhatt, is a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company, and his father, Suresh Modi, (Gujarati: સુરેશ મોદી) is an engineer.

[13] 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.

He was active in the schools' theater productions and competed on the Freehold Township National Honor Society Speech and Debate team (formerly known as Forensics).

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, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls.

[17]Also in January 2007, he appeared in the spoof comedy Epic Movie as well as the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

reported that Penn had signed on as a regular on the show along with Olivia Wilde and Peter Jacobson and this was confirmed in the plot of the episode "Games".

[21] Penn had a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother for the seventh season of the show,[22] in which he played Kevin, a therapist and later boyfriend of Robin Scherbatsky.

In October 2016, Penn began a regular role in the ABC drama series Designated Survivor as Seth Wright, a White House speech writer who originally worked under the previous president's administration.

[13] On March 7, 2019, Penn was cast in the main role of Garrett Modi on the NBC comedy Sunnyside[27] and the series was ordered on May 6, 2019.

[30] In 2022, he was cast as Simon Choksi/Santa on The Santa Clauses, for which he received a nominations for the Outstanding Supporting Performance at the 2nd Children's and Family Emmy Awards.

In early 2009, Penn was offered the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, which he accepted.

[37] Having made a commitment before his employment at the White House, Penn left his post as Obama's associate director of public engagement on June 1, 2010, to return to his acting career.

[46] During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Penn expressed interest in the messages of Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

[2][15][53][54] On January 2, 2017, Penn won the "MasterChef Celebrity Showdown" and donated the $25,000 cash prize to UNRWA, a United Nations relief and human development agency that supports Palestinian refugees.

[56] This occurred during President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, which banned immigration to the United States from Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia regardless of visa status.

[58][59] In October 2021, while promoting his memoir, You Can't Be Serious, Penn announced that he and his boyfriend of 11 years, named Josh, were engaged.