Kal Penn goes to Washington

After heavily stumping for President Barack Obama during the campaign season (he even came to UW-Madison), Actor Kal Penn is joining the new administration as the associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison. In an interview with EW.com, Penn explains why he's leaving acting for politics:

"I've been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn't love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes. It's probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more. And in '06 I started this international studies program at Stanford, where they actually let you do most of the course work online. So it was something I could do while I was acting. And I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else."

CNN also confirmed the news.

(photo via CNN.com)