Actor Kal Penn, of “Harold & Kumar” fame, had dual public announcements last week, coming out to People as he revealed his engagement to his longtime partner, Josh.
He opened up to People about his love story, which began unfolding while he was working at the White House for the Obama Administration 11 years ago.
Besides the “Harold & Kumar” film franchise, Penn has been a fixture on “House,” “Designated Survivor” and other television series.
“I’ve always been very public with everybody I’ve personally interacted with, whether it’s somebody that I meet at a bar if Josh and I are out, or we’re talking to friends,” the Indian American actor told People. “I’m really excited to share our relationship with readers. But Josh, my partner, my parents, and my brother, four people who I’m closest to in the family, are fairly quiet. They don’t love attention and shy away from the limelight.”
But now he’s got a book out, “You Can’t Be Serious,” and he is serious in this memoir, described by Simon and Schuster as “a series of funny, consequential, awkward, and ridiculous stories from Kal’s idiosyncratic life.”
That life has included working as an actor, a writer and a farmhand, as well as teaching ivy league university classes, the publisher’s description says.
He worked to tell his story while guarding the privacy of those loved ones, he told People. Even so he does manage to describe his first date with Josh, who would convert him unexpectedly into a NASCAR fan, against all his better instincts.
“I discovered my own sexuality relatively late in life compared to many other people,” Penn, 44, told People. “There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their s— out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.”
Telling family he was gay was the least awkward of the conversations Penn has had with loved ones about his life choices, he told “CBS Sunday Morning.”
“It’s very matter-of-fact in our lives,” he said of their union. “And when you’re the son of Indian immigrants who says that you want to be an actor, the chaos that that creates in your family and your community will trump anything else, always.”
