Kalpen Modi dreamed of making it big in Hollywood. After a successful drama career in high school and college, he struggled to land the acting gig he was looking for. Rather than giving up, he researched ways to market himself better. So he created the stage name Kal Penn.
“My name is easier to pronounce,” Penn said to more than 800 attendees Saturday night at Syracuse University’s Goldstein Auditorium. “My uncle said a seven letter name would match my stars according to Hindu numerology.”
The successful actor from the show House and the Harold and Kumar films delivered a lecture on current issues in the media. He stressed the fundamental question of the media’s role: is it to entertain or represent reality? The answer is debatable, but one goal has remained uniform: executives want to make money.
“Compared to the 90’s, there are now qualified people of color in media, and more people who make important decisions are younger and open-minded,” Penn said. “We’re almost at a point where this question will be irrelevant.”
Penn has degrees in film and sociology from UCLA and applies both fields to his research on diversity. Last year, he taught a course at the University of Pennsylvania titled “Images of Asian Americans in the Media.”
The most laughs did not come from Penn’s jokes. Freshman Amrita Mainthia asked Penn during the Q&A if he would marry her sister. Penn declined comment but did tell her to add him on MySpace.
“He came off as very intelligent,” anthropology student Anne Magellan said. “I thought it was too theoretical though because I’m not a communications major.”
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