Harold & Kumar star to take professor's podium
Last Updated: Monday, March 26, 2007 | 4:23 PM ET
CBC Arts
Forget Kumar Patel, you can call him "Professor."
The University of Pennsylvania announced Monday that Kal Penn, the South Asian-American actor best known as the co-star of the cult hit comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, will be one of its guest instructors next spring.
Actor Kal Penn arrives for a film premiere in the Westwood section of Los Angeles on June 21.
(Matt Sayles/Associated Press)
The 29-year-old actor, whose real name is Kalpen Modi, will teach two undergraduate courses for the school's Asian American studies program during the spring 2008 semester.
His classes are tentatively titled Images of Asian Americans in the Media, and Contemporary American Teen Films.
"Mr. Modi is one of the leading Asian American actors of his generation and is particularly aware of how his racial and ethnic identification has affected his professional experiences," program director Grace Kao said in a statement.
According to the university, Penn holds a bachelor's degree in sociology with a specialization in theatre, film and television.
Penn's credits include appearances on TV counterterrorism thriller 24 and police procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
As well as starring opposite John Cho in the stoner teen comedy Harold & Kumar, he worked on the films Epic Movie, Superman Returns, Van Wilder and Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj. Penn and Cho recently completed shooting a sequel to Harold & Kumar.
Penn, who originally hails from New Jersey, appeared most recently in acclaimed director Mira Nair's film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
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