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Kal Penn who starred in "Harold and Kumar" and the fame tv series 'House' to join Barack Obama's administration at the White House.

What exactly is the new job?

Kal Penn: The job itself is that I will be an associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison, and what the OPL does is similar in a sense to what I was doing on the campaign. What they try and do is take the administration itself out of Washington, so they go into communities across the country, continue the sorts of dialogue people had started during the campaign and basically ensure that a bunch of citizens' views about their elected officials, about their government are all happening and that they're working effectively. Make sure that a lot of these new voices that have emerged -- especially during the campaign season -- are brought to the table -- Democrats, Republicans, everyone in between - and to build those relationships and kind of embody the types of changes that President Obama had run on.

Can you talk about your decision to leave the show and how long this has been in the works?

KP: Growing up I always had two interests and two passions, one being public service and the other being arts and acting, so it's always been on my mind, I always try to engage in different public service projects, and in the last 18 months having had the opportunity to serve on the Obama campaign, I certainly started thinking about that possibility, and then when that opportunity came up I went to David and Katie and sort of talked about it. It is a little insane because this was an incredible show to have been a part of -- there were certainly no problems -- if anything I was having a great time. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the writers and other actors and obviously David and Katie, so it was tough all around. The word I still use to describe it is bittersweet.