Kal Penn's Sunnyside character was inspired by Anthony Weiner: "Not the creepy part. Early Weiner"

Deadline

“When we talked about the character, we talked a lot about Anthony Weiner. Not the creepy part. Early Weiner,” said Matt Murray, who co-created the NBC immigrant comedy with Penn, who plays a disgraced former New York Council member. (Former New York City Council member and member of Congress Weiner went to prison after he was caught sexting with underage teens.) “We thought about a guy who got infatuated with the spotlight, liked all the trappings of power but didn’t want to get his hands dirty and do the work of being a politician,” Murray said at the TV press tour. "The guy who coasts on that for a long time and then has a downfall and realizes he has no skills to do anything else. That was the area we were going for.”