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Omar Epps
Epps at the L.A. Confidential/Belvedere/Water Club/Sapporo Emmy Party, September 20, 2008
Born	Omar Hashim Epps[1] (1973-07-20) July 20, 1973 (age 38)[1] Brooklyn, New York, U.S.[1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Keisha Epps (2006–present)

Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and record producer.^[1] His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball.^[2] Epps' television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the US medical drama series ER, and since 2004 Dr. Eric Foreman on the Fox medical drama series House. Epps is the only main cast member of House to have appeared on both ER and the aforementioned series.^[2]

Personal life[link]

Epps was born in Brooklyn, New York.^[1] His parents divorced during his childhood and he was raised by his mother, Bonnie Maria Epps, an elementary school principal.^[3][4] He lived in several neighborhoods while growing up (Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Flatbush).^[5] Before he started acting, he belonged to a rap group called Wolfpack which he formed with his cousin in 1991. He began writing poetry, short stories and songs at the age of ten and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.^[1]

Epps has a daughter, Aiyanna, from a previous relationship. He married Keisha Spivey from the R&B group Total in 2006. They live in California with daughter K'mari Mae (born July 2004) and son Amir (born 25 December 2007).

Career[link]

Epps at the Paley Center for Media, Beverly Hills, California, on June 17, 2009

Early in Epps's career, he was most often cast in the roles of troubled teens and/or athletes. He made his feature film debut with rapper Tupac Shakur as the star of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's directorial film debut Juice.^[6] The film is the violent and tragic story of four young men growing up in Harlem.

Epps followed up his performance in Juice as a running back in the college football drama The Program alongside James Caan.

Epps starred in the film "Deadly Voyage" produced by John Goldschmidt for HBO Pictures and BBC Films, and won the best actor award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival for portraying Kingsley Ofusu in this true story about African stowaways.

The following year, he switched to baseball as co-star of Major League II, taking over the role of Willie Mays Hayes from originator Wesley Snipes. His next athletic endeavor was playing a track and field star in John Singleton's Higher Learning, a look at the politics and racial tensions of college life.

Epps landed a role on the hit television drama ER for several episodes portraying Dr. Dennis Gant, a troubled surgical intern. After his television work on ER, Epps returned to the big screen in 1997 with a brief turn as a giddy moviegoer on a date with a woman played by Jada Pinkett, who ends up an early victim of a psycho slasher in the blockbuster sequel Scream 2. Also in 1997 Epps was the star of the fact-based HBO movie First Time Felon. Epps played a small-time criminal who goes through Chicago's boot camp reform system and undertakes a heroic flood rescue, only to then be faced with the adjustment of re-entering society with the mark of ex-con. In 1999 Epps was cast as Linc in The Mod Squad.

While The Mod Squad proved a critical and box office bust, Epps's later 1999 effort The Wood offered him a serious and multi-dimensional role. Following a group of middle-class African-Americans from youth to adulthood, The Wood, the debut effort from director-screenwriter Rick Famuyiwa, co-starred Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs and received a push from co-producers MTV Films that ensured turnout of a sizable youth audience. Also in 1999, Epps was featured alongside Stanley Tucci and LL Cool J, playing an undercover detective who finds himself dangerously caught up in the illegal goings-on he is investigating in In Too Deep. 1999 also saw him lens the 1950s set murder mystery When Willows Touch, with James Earl Jones and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In 2000, Epps starred in Love & Basketball, featuring Alfre Woodard and Sanaa Lathan. He portrayed Quincy, the NBA hopeful who has a stormy relationship with an equally adept female basketball star Monica (Sanaa Lathan). The actor held supporting roles in a series of films including Dracula 2000, Big Trouble, and the telepic Conviction. In this year he also had a leading role as a gangster in Brother, a movie by acclaimed Japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano.

In 2004, Epps landed the role of drug-dealer-turned-prizefighter Luther Shaw who falls under the tutelage of boxing promoter Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan) in the biopic Against the Ropes.

Epps was a character in the video game Def Jam Fight for NY in 2004.

Also in 2004, Epps returned to television medical drama with his role as Dr. Eric Foreman on the US Fox television series House. The role earned him a NAACP Image Award in 2007 and 2008 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

2004: Omar Epps Presents...The Get Back.^[8]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Omar Epps

• Omar Epps at the Internet Movie Database
• Omar Epps on Twitter

Sanaa Lathan
Lathan at the premiere of Wonderful World, April 2009
Born	Sanaa McCoy Lathan (1971-09-19) September 19, 1971 (age 40)[1] New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Voice actress
Years active	1996–present

Sanaa McCoy Lathan (born September 19, 1971) is an American actress and voice actress. She has starred in numerous movies, including the box-office hits Love & Basketball, Alien vs. Predator, Something New, and The Family That Preys. Lathan was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun. In 2010 she starred in the all-black performance of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London.^[2]

Early life[link]

Lathan was born in New York City and attended Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. Her first name means "brilliance" in Arabic and "work of art" in Swahili.^[3] She is of African American descent.^[4][5] Her mother, Eleanor McCoy, was an actress and dancer^[6] who performed on Broadway with Eartha Kitt. Her father, Stan Lathan, worked behind the scenes in television for PBS, as well as a producer on shows such as Sanford & Son and Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam. Her brother is Tendaji Lathan (a DJ).

She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in English. Lathan contemplated a career in law, but instead enrolled at the Yale School of Drama.

Career[link]

Following her training at Yale, where she studied with Earle R. Gister and performed in a number of Shakespeare's plays, Lathan earned acclaim both off-Broadway and on the Los Angeles stage. Encouraged by her father to make Los Angeles her professional base, the young actress found early television roles on episodes of such shows as In the House, Family Matters, NYPD Blue, and Moesha. During that same period, she won raves and a Best Actress nod from the Los Angeles NAACP Theatrical Award Committee for her performance in To Take Arms.

In 1998, Lathan earned a degree of recognition with her role as the mother of Wesley Snipes' title character in Blade. She followed this the subsequent year with a role in Life with Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy and back-to-back turns in The Best Man and The Wood. The Best Man was a comedic ensemble film, starring Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau Jr., and Morris Chestnut. The Best Man went on to become one of the top ten highest grossing African American films in history and Lathan received a NAACP Image Award nomination for her performance. The Wood, another ensemble film starring Diggs and Omar Epps, cast her as the love interest of Epps. Lathan and Epps were reunited onscreen in Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, this time playing a couple as passionate about basketball as they are about each other. In reality, the couple was also dating at the time. The film served as a break-out role for Lathan, who played a leading character instead of the girlfriend of one. Her performance in Love & Basketball earned her the 2001 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress and a BET Award.

In 2000, Lathan appeared in the Off-Broadway production of "The Vagina Monologues" along with Teri Garr and Julianna Margulies.

Lathan at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego.

In 2001, Lathan earned additional acclaim for her work in the multicultural comedy Catfish in Black Bean Sauce. Next was her second collaboration with Prince-Bythewood: Disappearing Acts; it is based on a novel by Terry McMillan. In the HBO movie, Lathan is cast as an aspiring singer/songwriter in love with a carpenter, played by her ‘’Blade’’ co-star Wesley Snipes. For her work in the film, Lathan earned an Essence Award for Best Actress, as well as the added assurance of a very busy work schedule. That year, she was named by Ebony magazine as one of its 55 Most Beautiful People and was honoured by Essence magazine and Black Entertainment Television.

In 2002, Lathan starred in the romantic comedy, Brown Sugar, alongside Diggs, Queen Latifah, and Mos Def. Lathan’s performance earned an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. The film also received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture.

In 2004, Lathan starred on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun with Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, and Phylicia Rashad. Lathan received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress for her portrayal of Beneatha Younger. Several years later, Lathan reprised the role in a critically acclaimed ABC Network production of A Raisin in the Sun.

Lathan subsequently starred in several major Hollywood films, including Alien vs. Predator, which was Lathan's biggest role to date. Alien vs. Predator was a major success grossing over $171 million worldwide. Out of Time was also an important role for Lathan as she played the plot-twist antagonist, sharing the screen with protagonist Denzel Washington.

In 2006, Lathan co-starred with Simon Baker in Something New, a romantic comedy about an interracial relationship. Lathan appeared in a recurring role as Michelle Landau in another interracial relationship as the much younger wife of a Texas businessman (Larry Hagman) during the fourth season of the television series, Nip/Tuck.

Lathan played Andrea in Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys. The film also features Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates; it was released in the U.S. on September 12, 2008.

Lathan with Matthew Broderick at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Wonderful World.

In 2009, Lathan co-starred with Matthew Broderick in the drama Wonderful World. She also began voicing the character Donna Tubbs on The Cleveland Show.

Lathan is currently playing the title role in Second Stage Theatre's By The Way, Meet Vera Stark by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage co-starring Stephanie J. Block, and David Garrison closing June 12.

In 2011, Lathan co-starred in the Stephen Soderbergh thriller Contagion alongside Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• BET Award

• 2001, Best Actress: (Winner)

• Black Movie Awards

• 2006, Best Actress: Something New (Nominated)

• Black Reel Award

• 2008, Best Actress: The Family That Preys (Nominated)
• 2006, Best Actress: Something New (Nominated)
• 2004, Best Actress: Out of Time (Winner)
• 2003, Best Actress: Brown Sugar (Nominated)
• 2001, Best Actress: Love & Basketball (Winner)
• 2001, Best Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series: Disappearing Acts (Nominated)

• Image Awards

• 2009, Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie/Mini-Series: A Raisin in the Sun (nominated)
• 2007, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Something New (Nominated)
• 2007, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Nip/Tuck (Nominated)
• 2004, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Out of Time (Nominated)
• 2003, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Brown Sugar (Nominated)
• 2001, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Love & Basketball (Winner)
• 2000, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: 'The Best Man' (Nominated)

• Independent Spirit Awards

• 2001, Best Female Lead: Love & Basketball (Nominated)

• Theatre World Award

• 2004 A Raisin in the Sun (Winner)

• Tony Award

• 2003, Best Featured Actress in a Play: A Raisin in the Sun (Nominated)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sanaa Lathan

• Sanaa Lathan at the Internet Movie Database
• Sanaa Lathan at AskMen.com

Interviews

• Essence Interview (September, 2008)
• MSNBC interview (February 2, 2006)
• MetroMix interview (February 2, 2006)
• BlackFilm interview (January, 2006)
• Latino Review interview (August, 2004)
• BlackFilm interview (August, 2004)

Mike Tomlin

Tomlin coaching a regular season Steelers home game in 2007
Personal information
Date of birth	(1972-03-15) March 15, 1972 (age 40)
Place of birth	Newport News, Virginia, U.S.
Career information
Position(s)	Head coach Defensive backs coach
College	College of William and Mary
Career highlights
Awards	2008 Motorola NFL Coach of the Year
Head coaching record
Career record	55–25–0 (Regular Season) 5–3 (Postseason) 60–28–0 (Overall)
Super Bowl wins	Super Bowl XLIII
Championships won	2008 AFC Championship 2010 AFC Championship
Stats
Coaching stats	Pro Football Reference
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999–2000 2001–2005 2006 2007-present	Virginia Military Institute Keydets (wide receivers) Memphis Tigers (graduate assistant) Arkansas State Red Wolves (wide receivers) Arkansas State Red Wolves (defensive backs) Cincinnati Bearcats (defensive backs) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (defensive backs) Minnesota Vikings (defensive coordinator) Pittsburgh Steelers (head coach)

Michael Tomlin (born March 15, 1972) is the current head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. Tomlin is the third youngest head coach in any of the four major North American professional sports. He is the tenth African-American head coach in NFL history, and first in Steelers history. With the Steelers' victory in Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, Tomlin became the youngest head coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory.

Biography[link]

Playing career[link]

Tomlin attended Denbigh High School and was a three-year starter as a wide receiver/tight end for the College of William and Mary, where he became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He finished his career with a school-record 20 touchdown catches. He was a second-team All-Yankee Conference selection in 1994. Tomlin never played in the NFL.

Coaching career[link]

College[link]

Tomlin's coaching career began in 1995 as the wide receiver coach at Virginia Military Institute under former West Virginia University head coach Bill Stewart. He spent the 1996 season as a graduate assistant at the University of Memphis, where he worked with the defensive backs and special teams.

Following a brief stint on the University of Tennessee at Martin's coaching staff, Tomlin was hired by Arkansas State University in 1997 to coach its defensive backs. Tomlin stayed there for two seasons, before being hired as defensive backs coach by the University of Cincinnati.^{[citation needed]}

All of Tomlin's coaching jobs at the college level were for NCAA Division I teams.

National Football League[link]

Assistant coach[link]

Tomlin was hired as the defensive backs coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001, where he first learned the Tampa 2 defense that he would use in later coaching jobs.^[1]

In 2002 and 2005, the Buccaneers led the NFL in total defense (fewest yards allowed per game)—during Tomlin's tenure, the defense never ranked worse than sixth overall. When the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII in January 2003, the team recorded four interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns.

Tomlin was selected by Vikings' head coach Brad Childress to be his defensive coordinator in 2006.^[2][3] Two of the players on the Vikings were older than Tomlin, and Tomlin had been a teammate of Vikings' safety Darren Sharper at William and Mary. The 2006 Vikings finished with the NFL's eighth-best overall defense, but had the unusual distinction of finishing as the top-ranked defense against the run,^[4] and the worst-ranked defense against the pass.^[5]

Head coach[link]

Tomlin became the sixteenth Steelers head coach on January 22, 2007, when he was hired to replace Bill Cowher, who resigned after spending 15 years with the team. Tomlin had also interviewed for the head coaching vacancy with the Miami Dolphins, which eventually was given to Cam Cameron.

Tomlin continues a trend of 30-something Steeler head coaching hires, following Cowher (hired at age 34 in 1992), and Chuck Noll (hired at age 37 in 1969). Other Steelers coaches hired in their thirties include Bill Austin (hired at age 38 in 1966), John Michelosen (hired at age 32 in 1948), Jim Leonard (hired at age 35 in 1945), Walt Kiesling (hired at age 35 in 1939), Aldo Donelli (hired at age 33 in 1941), Johnny "Blood" McNally (hired at age 33 in 1937) and Joe Bach (hired at age 36 in 1935).

Tomlin is the tenth African-American head coach in NFL history and the first in Steelers franchise history. Steelers owner Dan Rooney has served as the head of the NFL's diversity committee and proposed the Rooney Rule, requiring that teams interview minority candidates when selecting a head coach. Although Tomlin's ascension to an NFL head coaching job has been cited as evidence of the rule working as intended,^[6] Rooney himself disputes this, as he had already interviewed a minority candidate prior to interviewing Tomlin.^[7][8]

Terms of Tomlin's contract have not been released officially. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports a four-year deal ($2.5M each year) with an option for a fifth year. He is the third consecutive Steeler coach to win his first game, and the first head coach in Steeler history to win his first contest against the rival Cleveland Browns.

In a stark contrast to Bill Cowher, who only retained longtime running backs coach Dick Hoak from Chuck Noll's staff (Hoak himself retired just before Cowher's resignation), Tomlin did retain many of Cowher's assistants, most notably defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau despite his contrasting defensive philosophy with Tomlin. This was done in order to keep team chemistry with the players, since the team was only one year removed from a Super Bowl win at the time of Tomlin's hiring. The Steelers finished Tomlin's first season as head coach with the top-ranked defense in the NFL.^[9] Tomlin led the Steelers to the 2007 AFC North Division championship and a 10–6 record in his first year as head coach. The Steelers lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31–29. Tomlin began his career with a 15–7 record in regular season play—as did his predecessor Cowher and all-time win-leader Don Shula.^[10] Tomlin set a Steelers record for most wins, after winning 22 games in his first two seasons as head coach; in addition he became the first Steelers coach to win division titles in his first two seasons.^[11]

When the Steelers defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the 2008 AFC Championship Game, Mike Tomlin became the youngest NFL Head Coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl. He also became the third African-American to coach a team into the Super Bowl, joining Chicago's Lovie Smith and Indianapolis' Tony Dungy—the two opposing coaches in Super Bowl XLI. (Jim Caldwell, Dungy's replacement, joined them a year after Tomlin by coaching the Colts into Super Bowl XLIV.) He was, after 2 seasons, the winningest head coach in Steelers history, based on win percentage (68.8%) (22–10)

On January 29, 2009, Mike Tomlin was named the 2008 Motorola NFL Coach of the Year.^[12]

On February 1, 2009, Tomlin became the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl when his Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, beating the previous record held by Jon Gruden.

On July 13, 2010 Tomlin signed a 3 year contract extension with the Steelers.

On November 13, 2011 Tomlin won his 50th game as a Steelers head coach with a 24-17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. He is only the fourth of the 16 Steelers head coaches to do so.

Personal[link]

Tomlin was born as Michael Pettaway Tomlin and is the younger of two sons; his brother, Eddie, is three and a half years older. Their father, Ed Tomlin, played football at Hampton Institute in the 1960s and was drafted by the Baltimore Colts. He later played for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. The elder Tomlin died in January 2012 from an apparent heart attack in Ocala, Florida, at the age of 63.^[13] Tomlin's mother, Julia, married Leslie Copeland, a supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service, in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

Tomlin met his wife, Kiya Winston, while they were students at The College of William & Mary, where Tomlin majored in sociology.^[14] He graduated in 1995. They have three children: sons Michael Dean, born in 2001, and Mason, born in 2002; and a daughter, Harlyn Quinn, born in 2006.^[15][16] Tomlin resides with his family in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and attends the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.^[17][18]

Tomlin is a spring 1991 initiate of the Eta Omega chapter at Old Dominion University and charter member of the Xi Theta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, The College of William & Mary. Tomlin is popularly known for his uncanny resemblance to actor Omar Epps.^[17] His name was referenced on an episode of the TV series House in November 2009 in Episode 8 of Season 6, Ignorance is Bliss, when House mentions feeling like Mike Tomlin because of having his team back, then states probably not as much as Foreman.

Head coaching record[link]

Coaching record vs. other teams (regular season)[link]

How the Steelers fared in games with Tomlin as head coach.

Coaching record vs. other teams (playoffs)[link]

How the Steelers fared in playoff games with Tomlin as head coach.

Coaching tree[link]

References and notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Bell, Jarrett (Spring 2009), Super Man (Magazine), 116, Baltimore, Maryland: The Crisis, ISSN 0011-1422 

External links[link]

• Biography of Mike Tomlin in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator page
• Tampa Bay Buccanneers Defensive Backs coach page
• Tomlin Official Steelers Biography

Kal Penn
Kal Penn in 2009
Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement
Incumbent
Assumed office April 8, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Personal details
Born	Kalpen Suresh Modi (1977-04-23) April 23, 1977 (age 35) Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.)
Profession	Actor, Politician
Religion	Hinduism

Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), best known by his stage name Kal Penn, is an American film and television actor, producer, and civil servant.

As an actor, he is known for his roles portraying the character Dr. Lawrence Kutner on the television program House and the character Kumar Patel in the Harold and Kumar comedy films. He is also recognized for his performance in the critically acclaimed film The Namesake. Penn has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting lecturer in the Cinema Studies Program.

On April 8, 2009, it was announced that Penn would join the Obama administration as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.^[1] This necessitated that his character Lawrence Kutner be written out of the TV series House.^[1][2] Penn resigned his post as Barack Obama's associate director of public engagement on June 1, 2010, for a brief return to his acting career.^[3] He filmed the third installment of the Harold and Kumar series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, then returned to the White House Office of Public Engagement as an Associate Director.^[4] In July 2011, he again left the White House, this time for a role in How I Met Your Mother,^[5] and then went back to his political duties.

Early life and education[link]

Penn was born to a Hindu Indian family as Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey, the son of Asmita, a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company, and Suresh Modi, an engineer.^[6][7] Both of his parents are Gujarati immigrants from India.^[8] He has stated that stories of his grandparents marching with Mahatma Gandhi for Indian independence were a significant influence on his interest in politics.^[9]

He attended Marlboro Middle School in Marlboro Township, New Jersey and and and played baritone saxophone in the jazz band there. Penn attended The Fine and Performing Arts Academy (a magnet program) at Howell High School for freshman, sophomore, and and junior years; he transferred to Freehold Township High School for senior year; both schools are part of the Freehold Regional High School District. He was active in the schools' theater productions and competed on the Freehold Township forensics team. He attended UCLA, where he double majored in film and sociology.^[10]

Acting career[link]

Penn's feature film debut came in 1998 in Express: Aisle to Glory. He has since appeared in American Desi, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Malibu's Most Wanted, A Lot Like Love, Dude, Where's the Party?, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Superman Returns, National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, Epic Movie, The Namesake, the Harold and Kumar series, and an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls. Penn was featured in The Lonely Island's rejected comedy pilot, Awesometown.

Penn says that he derived his acting name, Kal Penn, as a lark: "Almost as a joke to prove friends wrong, and half as an attempt to see if what I was told would work (that anglicized names appeal more to a white-dominated industry), I put 'Kal Penn' on my resume and photos." His audition callbacks rose by 50 percent. He has stated that he prefers his birth name and uses "Kal Penn" only for professional purposes.

In January 2007, Penn appeared in the first four episodes of the sixth season of 24 as Ahmed Amar, a teenage terrorist. Penn says he nearly turned down the role due to personal ethics, stating, "I have a huge political problem with the role. It was essentially accepting a form of racial profiling. I think it’s repulsive. But it was the first time I had a chance to blow stuff up and take a family hostage. As an actor, why shouldn’t I have that opportunity? Because I'm brown and I should be scared about the connection between media images and people's thought processes?"^[11]

Also in January 2007, he appeared in the spoof comedy Epic Movie as well as the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In May 2007, Penn received the Asian Excellence Award for Outstanding Actor for his performance in The Namesake.^[12]

In fall 2007, Penn joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House as a fellowship applicant.^[13] E! 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". Penn continued with the series through to the episode "Simple Explanation", which aired April 6, 2009. He made an additional appearance as Lawrence Kutner on the fifth season finale, "Both Sides Now", that aired on May 11, 2009. However, due to his new job at the White House, Penn could not be present for the filming of this episode. The clip of him saying "Too bad it isn't true" was taken from a previous filming. Penn returned to the show for the series finale.^[14]

Beside his role on the T.V. series House, he is best known from his role in Harold & Kumar, Kumar Patel, a cannabis smoker who goes with Harold Lee (John Cho) to White Castle for a hamburger. Unlike his character, he neither smokes marijuana, claiming it is not for him,^{[15][dead link]} nor eats meat.

On July 13, 2011, it was announced on Facebook that Penn would be joining the cast of How I Met Your Mother for the seventh season of the show.^[16]

Political interests[link]

Kal Penn speaking at a rally for Barack Obama at the University of Maryland's Nyumburu Cultural Center.

Penn was an advocate for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008 and a member of Obama's National Arts Policy Committee.^[17] He appears in the Barack Obama-supporting video "Sí Se Puede Cambiar" by Andres Useche^[18] and appeared with comedian George Lopez on January 18, 2009, at "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial".

In early 2009, Penn was offered the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in the Obama administration, which he accepted. This necessitated his character Lawrence Kutner being written out of the TV series House.^[1][19][20] In his new role with the Obama administration, Modi served as a liaison with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.^[21] He had gone back to using his birth name, Kalpen Modi.^[22]

Having made a commitment before his employment at the White House, Penn amicably left his post as Barack Obama's associate director of public engagement on June 1, 2010 to return to his acting career.^[3] He returned to office on November 15, 2010, following completion of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.^[23]

In February 2012, it was announced that Penn would be a co-chair for the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama^[24]

Other activities[link]

In 2008, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.^[10][25] His course was titled "Images of Asian Americans in the Media."^[26]

Penn is currently working on a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.^[1][10]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television roles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kal Penn

	Asian Americans portal
	Film portal
	Biography portal

• Kal Penn at the Internet Movie Database
• Kal Penn on Twitter

For the actor with a similar name, see Christopher Collins.

K.C. Collins
Collins in August 2011
Born	Kris Collins Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other names	Chris Collins

K.C. Collins, also known as Chris Collins, is a Canadian film, voice and television actor.

Collins was born in Toronto, Ontario but now lives in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his role as Hale on the Canadian television show Lost Girl. He attended Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York on a baseball scholarship. He had a couple more options as in The University Of Hawaii and Florida State University but wanted to stay close to his grandmother who raised him. He left school to pursue an acting career.^[1]

Filmography[link]

• Due South (1997) (TV series) - Jamal Martin
• Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science (1999) (TV series) - Adrian Kinkead
• Love Songs (1999) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Tom-Tom
• Mean Streak (1999) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Runner
• In Too Deep (1999) (as Chris Collins) - Lookout
• The Hoop Life (2000) (TV series) - Derek
• Cheaters (2000) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Kid with Walkman
• The Ride (2000) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - College Kid #2
• Seventeen Again (2000) (as Chris Collins) - Leo
• They Call Me Sirr (2001) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Damian
• Earth: Final Conflict (2001) (TV series) - R.J.
• Ruby's Bucket of Blood (2001) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Dugso
• Sins of the Father (2002) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Youth
• Our America (2002) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - James
• The Red Sneakers (2002) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Roscoe
• Doc (2001–2002) (TV series) - Billy
• Odyssey 5 (2002) (TV series) - Chavo
• Paid in Full (2002) (as Chris Collins) - Kid #1
• Conviction (2002) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Bo
• Owning Mahowny (2003) (as Chris Collins) - Bernie
• Good Fences (2003) (TV) (as Chris Collins) - Pee-Pie - Age 15
• Crime Spree (2003) (as Chris Collins) - Lamar
• Bulletproof Monk (2003) (as Chris Collins) - Sax
• Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye (2003) (TV series) - Antwan
• Platinum (2003) (TV series) - Walter
• Soul Food (2003) (TV series) - Tobias
• Detention (2003) (as Chris Collins) - Hogie Hogarth
• Playmakers (2003) (TV series) - Ron Martin
• Tarzan (2003) (TV series) - Matt Flynn
• Street Time (2003) (TV series) - Rasheed
• 1-800-Missing (2003) (TV series) - Dylan Hodder (1 episode, 2003)
• Blue Murder (2001–2004) (TV series) - Eric Addell
• Naughty or Nice (2004) (TV) - Bobby
• Blind Injustice (2005) (TV) - Esteban
• Kojak (2005) (TV series) - Jimmy Wiles
• Love Bites (2006) (TV series) - Bret
• Close to Home (2006) (TV series) - Austin Jackson
• Doomstown (2006) (TV) - Kevin 'Jedi' Barrows
• Animal 2 (2007) - James, Jr.
• Poor Boy's Game (2007) - Charles Carvery
• Toronto Stories (2008) - Alton Morris
• Saving God (2008) - Mike
• The Summit (2008) (mini TV series) - Jale
• ZOS: Zone of Separation (2009) (mini TV series) - Private Delmore
• A Day in the Life (2009) - Mesmo
• Guns (2009) (mini TV series) - Derek Wilmot
• Lost Girl (2010-) - Hale
• Mulki`s Warya (2012-) - Adam

References[link]

External links[link]

• K.C. Collins at the Internet Movie Database