Kalpen Suresh Modi
Born in New Jersey, now resides in L.A.
Is of Gujarati Indian descent.
He and the other students were banned from using the word "like" in his acting classes, this was to make them sound more intelligent during auditions.
During the Spring 2008 semester, he was an adjunct faculty member in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (familiarly called "Penn") in Philadelphia. He taught a lecture course, "Images of Asian Americans in the Media," and a seminar, "Contemporary American Teen Films," both of which were cross-listed in the Cinema Studies department. His faculty listing on the Asian America Studies Program website gives his name as Kalpen Modi (his real name) first, with his stage name, Kal Penn, in parentheses.
Is in the process of earning a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.