Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), best-known by his professional name, Kal Penn, is an American film and television actor, and is the incoming Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Barack Obama administration. On April 8, 2009 Penn announced that he would join the Obama White House as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. This necessitated that his character Lawrence Kutner be written out of the TV series, House. Penn was born as Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey, to a father who worked as an engineer and a mother who worked as a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company; both of his parents are Hindu Gujarati, India immigrants.

He has stated that stories of his grandparents marching with Mohandas Gandhi for Indian independence were a significant influence on his interest in politics.Penn is a vegetarian and ate soy patties instead of hamburgers during the filming of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. In spring 2008, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He taught a course entitled “Images of Asian Americans in the Media.” Penn is currently working on a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.