On Thursday night, Kal Penn — famous for his roles in the “Harold and Kumar” movies, as well as television shows “House” and “Industry” — spoke to a rapt crowd about his journey through Hollywood and government as part of the 24th annual Change the Status Quo keynote event. 

His message to the audience? Don’t let yourself get cynical.

“If you shy away from cynicism, there’s an opportunity to do a lot of things,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of hope there.”

Professor Denise Isom, former Interim vice president for diversity and inclusion, led the conversation with Penn, asking the actor about his early career before delving into his most notable off-screen role: as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement during the Obama Administration. 

Penn, who spent two years at the White House, emphasized his privilege in having a career and savings that allowed him to take a sabbatical but added that he was just one of many people who took leaves of absence from their own professions to do the same thing.  

“You get all the attention if you go and work for the White House, but people do it at every level of public service and government. And I think there's a real magic to that that only happens in a vibrant democracy,” Penn said. “It’s a non-partisan thing. There are people who worked for Republican administrations and Democratic administrations who took that leave of absence because they thought it was the right thing to do at that particular point in their lives.”

But his stint in the White House wasn’t his last brush with politics: he also spoke about his connection to Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim and Asian-American mayor, who took office in January. 

Penn first met Mamdani while auditioning for 2006 film “The Namesake,” directed by Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, which he eventually starred in. In fact, before he met with Nair, she told him she would consider him in part because her son was a big fan of “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” Penn recalled. He went on to become one of Mamdani’s biggest supporters as he pursued a career in politics and helped with his campaigns for New York State Assembly. 

“I’m very proud of him,” Penn said, adding that one of Mamdani’s most impressive qualities is being able to speak with people who disagree with him. " I think to find the common ground with somebody that you disagree with vehemently is important to do and it takes a particular skill to be able to do that in the political world today.”

Penn and Isom also took some time to talk about one of the actor’s most iconic roles, as Kumar Patel in the “Harold and Kumar” film series, and Asian representation in Hollywood. Penn said that when he and co-star John Cho first started filming, they got together and had a conversation about what the movie meant to them. 

 “One of the things that [Cho] said was, ‘I feel like the 12-year-old me would be really happy that we're making this movie.’ And my version of that was the eighth-grade me. I think we'd be excited to know that this exists because we never grew up with something like that,” Penn said. 

But is Penn anything like Kumar?

“ I love playing characters who are so completely different than I am in real life,” Penn said. “The closer they are to who I am, the less interesting and less challenging it tends to be.”

Following the conversation with Isom, Penn took part in a Q&A session with the audience. One of the audience members, a Cal Poly student, asked Penn if he ever had trouble getting people to take him seriously while working in public service. 

“The only people who ever asked me about my movies during that time were journalists. If I met with a group of young people at the White House, it’s because they wanted healthcare, or because they cared about Darfur, or climate change,” Penn said. “It’s not that they didn’t watch the stuff I was doing, but if you have 45 minutes with a White House staffer, you’re taking 45 minutes to talk about the thing you came to Washington to talk about.”

An underlying thread throughout Penn’s time onstage was the importance of not letting cynicism win. He urged the audience, especially students, to go beyond social media and work together to get politicians to pay attention to the issues they care about. 

“I understand taking 30 seconds and saying something on social media. But taking an extra hour and finding maybe 15 people who are the heads of organizations on your campus and drafting a letter and...posting that letter somewhere and sending a hard copy to every office that your politician has goes way farther,” Penn said. “It shows them...[you] have built a coalition.”

Penn came back to that during the Q&A portion, when an audience member asked if he had any reassuring words in the face of a general uptick in polarization.

“What’s worked in the past is coalition-building, people showing up for each other. The first time we show up for other communities can’t be when they come after us,” Penn said. “It has to be before that, and it’s never too late to build those coalitions either.”

The conversation and Q&A with Penn was hosted by the Center for Service in Action in partnership with Cal Poly Arts. Penn was the keynote speaker for the Change the Status Quo speaker series, which  aims to empower attendees to use the Learn by Doing spirit to challenge social norms, ask critical questions and demand solutions.

“Our hope is attendees will learn the newfound sense and understanding of the interplay between service and social justice and how they can take ownership of their role in moving the needle on social change,” said Bradley Kyker, the Center for Service in Action’s assistant director, at the start of the event.