Actor goes from House to the White House
Kal Penn isn’t just a (former) White House employee — he now also plays one on TV. The actor, who was the associate director for the Office of Public Engagement under U.S. President Barack Obama, is waxing political on the TV drama Designated Survivor.
His character, Seth Wright, is a speech writer turned press secretary for newly installed president Thomas Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland), who’s thrown into the gig after an attack on U.S. soil leaves the previous commander-in-chief and other elected officials dead.
But though the show deals in themes that buoy the current U.S. election cycle, Penn insists that’s not the show’s main focus.
“I told myself I was not going to do a political show until well after Obama left office, because I didn’t want there to be any confusion between the two. But I read it and realized it is Conspiracy Theory 101 — it isn’t a political show at all.
“Certainly it touches on themes that people talk about a lot — the concept of terrorism, or health care, or government spending or things like that — but that’s much less political and more the process. The stories are all family and conspiracy.”
Designated Survivor is a reunion of sorts for Penn and Sutherland, whose paths crossed briefly on the clock-ticking counter-terrorism drama 24. Sutherland was agent Jack Bauer and Penn was the mouse to his gunslinging cat.
Though Penn has also made an impact on TV with his portrayal of the suicidal Dr. Kutner in House, and as Robin’s therapist-turned-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother, he’s perhaps best known for playing the stoner Kumar in the Harold & Kumar film franchise. And given the chance, he says he’d gladly revisit the role first seen in 2004’s Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
Outside of acting, and aside from his stints in the public sector, Penn taught a 2008 class on Asian-Americans in the media at the University of Pennsylvania. But when pressed, the actor is clear about his calling.
“Filmmaking and acting will always be my first love. Storytelling is my first love,” says Penn.
So another job in politics is out of the question, then?
“I don’t know. It depends. I certainly wasn’t planning on it the first time, and I was really glad I did it, so who knows?”