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Kal Penn to Host Election Series for Freeform Aimed at Young Voters

Will Thorne
·2-min read

Kal Penn is trying to help mobilize young voters.

The actor and comedian is set to host an unscripted series at Freeform that looks to explore issues and topics relevant to Millennial and GenZ voters, Variety has confirmed. The Disney-owned network has issued a series order for the untitled comedy project. Precisely what kind of format the series will take is as yet unclear.

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Penn created the series alongside Romen Borsellino, and the duo serve as executive producers with Dan Spilo. Michael Davies and Julia Cassidy are also on board to exec produce for Embassy Row.

The “Harold and Kumar” star has prior experience in the electoral politics domain, having worked in the Obama administration, specifically on President Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.

Penn’s recent credits include the Disney Junior series “Mira, Royal Detective,” in which he voices the main character’s mongoose sidekick. He created the NBC series “Sunnyside,” which only ran for a few low-rated episodes on the network last year, before being moved to streaming only. In “Sunnyside,” Penn played Garrett Modi, a disgraced former New York City Council wunderkind who was drummed out of office by drunken scandal and ineptitude. The series saw him help a group of immigrants navigate the path to becoming U.S. citizens, a topic Penn will doubtless touch on with his new Freeform show. Borsellino worked with Penn on “Sunnyside,” and his other credits are made of up of shorts produced in the last couple years.

Next up for Penn is the CBS “Silence of the Lambs” sequel series “Clarice,” in which he is set to play an FBI agent with a Ph.D. in library science.

Deadline first reported the news

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