BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Last
was in "Sunnyside."
I watched the whole first season of that.
KAL PENN: Thank you.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I know you co-created that show.
And it's no longer on the air, but I
know that was a big endeavor for you
to co-create something and star in it.
So I want to know on the backside of it, just
what was that experience like?
How did you grow in it?
What did you learn from it? KAL PENN: Yeah.
Thank you for the question.
So the show is--
the entire first season is on Hulu.
So folks can still watch it.
And the cast is amazing.
They're mostly stand-up comics.
And I co-created it with Matt Murray, who comes
from the Mike Schur world.
And it was awesome.
I mean, it was an idea that I had initially had,
like, five years ago.
And then Matt and I collaborated into its current form.
We hired the most diverse writers room,
my understanding is, in the history of Hollywood,
the most diverse cast on network TV,
I mean, things that we're deeply, deeply proud of.
But that also, I think, gave us really interesting,
fun plot lines.
So it's a story about--
essentially it's about a group of immigrants
living in Sunnyside, Queens.
And I play a dysfunctional city councilman
who got kicked out of office for being drunk
and trying to bribe a cop.
So it's sort of those-- like, those worlds
all coming into one.
It's essentially the setup for this weird group of friends.
But the fact that, you know--
most of the writers were either immigrants themselves
or have immigrant family members.
The cast is very diverse.
And it was all cast organically, right?
Like, we wanted to go for the best actor, period.
All of which is to say that between the improv
and the writing skills that people had,
it was a really, really fun season.
So I'm glad it's going to live on Hulu.
And I would love to do something like that all over again.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, the jokes and the pacing
on this show were just really--
you-- you almost had to-- you had to pay attention.
KAL PENN: Yeah.
You have to pay attention or watch it again, yeah.
[LAUGHING]
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, absolutely.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]