Penn Badgely secretly starred in a Pokémon TCG training video

Penn Badgely was the American actor who starred as Dan Humphrey, an iconic teenager drama series. Gossip Girl, has another key acting credit, but you won’t find it on his IMDB page — it’s a promotional video for the Pokémon Trading Card Game from 1999.

In an official video from Wizards of the Coast, the distributer of Pokémon cards at the time, a young Badgely as “Jimmy,” a patient, but firm instructor who teaching a classroom full of parents how to play the Pokémon TCG. The half-hour vidoe pokes fun at the parents — most of whom just want to trade the cards and aren’t as interested in learning how to actually play the game. The video switches between instructional videos and little skits featuring Jimmy’s classroom. The whole thing can be viewed on YouTube, which is a great advantage.

Badgely spoke about the memories of his role as Roman Kemp’s host on Capital Breakfast radio.

“I think in America at least [the Pokémon Company]Realizing that no one was actually learning the game, they only traded it. That probably had something to do with, let’s be honest, they wanted more money. People need to learn how to actually play the game. Not just trading cards. And so this was a training video that was probably on VHS,” Badgely said in the interview.

Oddly enough, this isn’t Badgely’s only Nintendo connection. In two Nintendo video games, Badgely voiced a character as a kid. Mario Golf 64And Mario Tennis 64. Now we can all add this Pokémon role to his list of surprising acting credits.