List of characters in The Big Bang Theory From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The following is a list of characters from the American situation comedy The Big Bang Theory created and executive produced by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, which premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007. It concerns two prodigies in their 20s, one a theoretical physicist and the other an experimental physicist, who work at Caltech and live across the hall from a waitress with show-biz aspirations. Their geekiness and intellect are contrasted by her social skills and common sense. Contents [hide] 1 Main Characters 2 Other characters 3 References 4 See also 5 External links [edit] Main Characters Dr. Leonard Hofstadter is a Caltech experimental physicist who shares an apartment with Dr. Sheldon Cooper in a building in Pasadena, California. Dr. Sheldon Cooper is Leonard's best friend, roommate, and colleague. He is named after actor/producer Sheldon Leonard.[1] He is calculating and cynical, believing that Leonard is only setting himself up for disappointment as he continues to have a crush on Penny. Penny (the only character whose last name is unrevealed) is Leonard and Sheldon's neighbor across the hallway and is a "cheesecake-scented goddess" in the words of Wolowitz.[2] Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, she is a beautiful waitress at the local Cheesecake Factory who apart from auditioning for several acting positions, is also writing a semi-autobiographical screenplay about a girl from Lincoln, Nebraska, who travels to Los Angeles to become an actress but ends up working at the Cheesecake Factory.[3] Penny is very outgoing, kind, and assertive. Howard Wolowitz is a Jewish engineer at Caltech's Department of Applied Physics who often hangs out at Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment. Jokingly, Wolowitz has stated that both he and Koothrappali visit Leonard and Sheldon's place because they like Leonard, not Sheldon. Rajesh Koothrappali is Wolowitz's best friend and yet another genius. He also works in the Physics department at Caltech, where his area of expertise is particle astrophysics. He approaches women in the exact opposite way of Wolowitz: he is so shy that he is unable to speak to them unless he is intoxicated or does not feel he is directly addressing them.[4] His social anxiety around women seems to be indicative of selective mutism, and is inspired by a former coworker of Bill Prady's.[5] Leslie Winkle is another physicist who works in the same lab as Leonard, specializing in high energy physics, particularly supersymmetry and dilepton calculations.[6] She is essentially Leonard's female counterpart equipped with the black framed glasses and sweat jackets, with Penny saying they make a cute couple. [edit] Other characters Kurt (Brian Wade; Pilot, The Middle-Earth Paradigm, and The Financial Permeability): Kurt is Penny's ex-boyfriend. He is a muscular bodybulder-like typical intimidating bully and not only has custody of his and Penny's old apartment, but their old television set as well, which Penny wants very badly. When Leonard and Sheldon try to retrieve the TV for her, he takes their pants and forces them to go home without them.[3] Penny left him because he cheated on her, but still makes an appearance during Penny's Halloween party on Penny's invitation.[7] After Leonard reproaches Kurt for not paying Penny what he owed her, Kurt decides to give her the money only to make himself look good and thereafter seems to date her again.[8] Dr. Eric Gablehauser (Mark Harelik; The Luminous Fish Effect, The Jerusalem Duality, The Bat Jar Conjecture, The Barbarian Sublimation, and The Griffin Equivalency): Dr. Gablehauser is the guys' boss at Caltech. He fired Sheldon after Sheldon pointed out his (Sheldon's) "superior" mind out loud to his face, but rehired Sheldon because Dr. Gablehauser has a soft spot for Sheldon's mother Mary.[9] Mary Cooper (Laurie Metcalf; The Luminous Fish Effect): Mary is Sheldon's long suffering Southern mother. Sheldon "fell out out of [her] at the K-Mart," but Sheldon says he was born at Lawrence Memorial.[9][10] She has given birth to two children besides Sheldon, including Sheldon's fraternal twin sister, Missy. Both other children are apparently Sheldon's intellectual opposites, who are, "... dumb as soup," as Mary describes them. Mary herself is not intellectual but is very wise; she appears to be an extremely good mother and is the only one who has ever been able to control Sheldon. She is a very religious Christian. Sheldon's father has long since passed on and he is mentioned as being incredibly foolish.[9] Leonard describes Mary as Sheldon's "Kryptonite" when he gives her number to Penny so that she can call her and complain about Sheldon.[11] Toby Loobenfeld aka Leopold Houston (DJ Qualls; The Loobenfeld Decay): Toby Loobenfeld is a research assistant at the particle physics lab where Sheldon works. He is used by Sheldon to play his fictional first cousin Leopold; a character Sheldon invented as part a lie told to get out of seeing Penny sing. This is because Toby, along with obtaining his Physics degree from MIT, double majored in theater. According to Sheldon's back story of "Leopold", he is a 26 year old middle child, born in Denton, Texas. He is a drug addict who escaped from a rehab facility in Long Beach, California, refused to go back, and came back to Pasadena with Leonard and Sheldon. His name is often shortened to Leo, but he also answers to Lee (Sheldon thinks Leonard would call him Lee). Toby/Leo is able to snuggle up with Penny on the couch while watching TV, much to the chagrin of Leonard and Sheldon.[12] Dennis Kim (Austin Lee; The Jerusalem Duality): Dennis Kim is a 15 year old genius from North Korea. The valedictorian of his graduating class at Stanford, Dr. Gablehauser hopes to recruit him into doing his graduate work at Caltech, and asks Leonard and Sheldon to show Dennis around. Dennis and Sheldon have an antagonistic relationship from the start, when Dennis refers to the university's string theory research (which Sheldon is a part of) as a "dead end." Dennis' accolades and overall intellectual superiority demoralize Sheldon enough that Sheldon decides to give up his ambition to win the Nobel Prize in Physics and instead focus on winning the Nobel Peace Prize by building a replica of Jerusalem in the Sonoran Desert. Dennis does agree to join the university, but when he is introduced to the physics department staff by Dr. Gablehauser during an office party, Dennis walks out with a girl (thereby allowing Sheldon to reclaim his intellectual confidence). At the end of the episode, we see that Dennis has dropped out of school and spends his days with his new girlfriend.[13] Missy Cooper (Courtney Henggeler; The Pork Chop Indeterminacy): Missy is Sheldon's fraternal twin sister who is intellectually much unlike him. Tall and attractive, she immediately catches the attention of Leonard, Wolowitz, and Koothrappali. Although she repeatedly ignores the guys' attempts to hit on her, she did show at least a partial interest in Raj. When he attempts to talk to her (while using medication to allow him to do so,) she stated: "Well, hey. I was hopin' you'd show up." Unfortunately, Raj's medication ran out at the exact same time, rendering him unable to talk. She refers to Sheldon as 'Shelly', and though she loves her brother and is proud of his accomplishments (though she, much to his chagrin, mistakenly refers to him as a "rocket scientist"), Missy is not above crotch-punching Sheldon to keep him in check.[14] Dr. V. M. Koothrappali (Brian George; The Grasshopper Experiment and The Griffin Equivalency): Raj's father, a gynecologist in India. He and Raj's mother communicate with him via video chat. They arrange a date for him with a childhood acquaintance who is a dental student at USC. He believes academics have a limited earning potential. Raj's parents were under the impression that Leonard and Sheldon were a "couple" because they lived together.[4] Mrs. Koothrappali (Alice Amter; The Grasshopper Experiment and The Griffin Equivalency): Raj's mother. She communicates with Raj via video chat along with her husband. She wants Raj to get married and give her grandchildren. She is unimpressed with Penny as a possible mate for her son. She enjoys Doogie Howser reruns, which are apparently new to India.[4][15] Lalita Gupta (Sarayu Rao; The Grasshopper Experiment): A childhood acquaintance of Raj, with whom he has a date in "The Grasshopper Experiment". She is a dental student at USC whom Raj's parents want to couple with Raj. Sheldon insists she bears a remarkable resemblance to an Indian princess in a children's story.[4] Ramona Nowitzki (Riki Lindhome; The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem) : Ramona is a graduate student at Caltech and a huge fan of Sheldon's, claiming to have read all his published work. She manages to have dinner with him in the apartment, and makes several subsequent visits and eventually sleeps overnight on Leonard and Sheldon's couch. She begins reproaching Sheldon for his myriad recreational activities, as she feels he is too gifted to be playing around. While initially flattered due to her unique reverence of him, Sheldon eventually becomes resentful of Ramona's encroachment of the leisurely aspects of his life, and begs for Penny and Leonard's help in ending the relationship. However, Sheldon's incessant research per Ramona's urging eventually results in a breakthrough in his work, but Ramona leaves the apartment when Sheldon refuses to share credit with her for the discovery, yelling "Get out!" after her request. Ramona was shown to have: a vivid understanding of Sheldon's work, assistance in his malign banter with Leslie, the admiration of Sheldon, which he enjoys.[16] Dr. Stephanie Barnett (Sara Rue; The Lizard-Spock Expansion through The Vartabedian Conundrum): Stephanie is a doctor and highly distinguished surgical resident at Fremont Memorial who is first seen with Howard at the Mars Rover's secret operating facility, despite her lacking security clearance. When Howard's plan to let her drive the Mars rover fails, as it gets stuck in a ditch, she leaves with Leonard and the two almost immediately hit it off. She never was interested in Howard, only the prospect of driving the rover. There are some initial tribulations between the new couple and Howard as a result of Leonard stealing Stephanie, although things are eventually resolved by introducing Howard to a new girl.[17] Sheldon begins to interpose Stephanie and Leonard's new relationship in an effort to mitigate what he sees as another failure for Leonard, in hopes to keep Stephanie around, whom he finds for once as a tolerable and decent addition to their "landing party" (ie, Sheldon and Leonard's social group). Although Sheldon's persistent and calculated attempts at making Leonard appear more optimal for Stephanie leave him somewhat in the opposite end, Stephanie maintains her interest in him. Sheldon eventually changes Leonard's Facebook page to "in a relationship", much to the chagrin of Leonard who sees it as a desperate act. Stephanie replies in kind showing that she and Leonard are definitely in a relationship, which leaves "Sheldon for the win".[10] Stephanie did her medical internship at Lawrence Memorial in Galveston, Texas, where Sheldon was born and went to after his CAT scanner of his own design gave him radiation burns at twelve years of age. After several weeks of dating, Stephanie officially begins living with Leonard in his and Sheldon's apartment, but Leonard, after much hesitance, tells her to move out because he is uncomfortable with the pace of the relationship.[18] Dr. David Underhill (Michael Trucco; The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis): David is a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and Caltech experimental physicist whose work on positrons nearly proved the existence of dark matter, making most of Leonard's work useless. Leonard even admits that David is ten times more intelligent than himself and is enthused to be working with him on the photomultiplier. Though, prior to this, Leonard does say that David was just at the right place and time when a reinterpretation of a scientific paradigm occurred. He becomes more fond of him when he finds out his hobbies, which includes riding motorcycles. With his leather jacket and "handsome" looks as Raj points out, Penny is shocked that he is a physicist. Penny starts dating him. She is later dismayed when she finds out he is married, to which Penny remarks that Leonard is the smarter one, as he makes a big deal about her dating another physicist given their last date.[19] Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie; The Killer Robot Instability and The Friendship Algorithm): Barry is an "unlikable" co-worker of Leonard and Sheldon's, working at Caltech's plasma lab. He has a case of rhotacism, meaning he pronounces "r" and "l" as "w" in much the same way as Elmer Fudd. In his first appearance, he completely destroys Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard's robot with his own "killer robot" during an unofficial robot fight in Caltech's kinetics lab. In The Friendship Algorithm, Sheldon attempts to befriend Kripke in order to gain access to an open science grid computer at Caltech so that he may carry out research. However, Sheldon's efforts are abandoned when he realizes that Barry has no say in who uses the computer. Barry is ostensibly named after philosopher and logician Saul Kripke. Dr. Beverly Hofstadter (Christine Baranski; The Maternal Capacitance): Leonard's mother. Beverly is a neuroscientist as well as a psychiatrist, thus, she is overly (psycho) analytical. She does not have a grasp on proper social conventions, much like Sheldon; she has Penny crying about her childhood within minutes of their first meeting. Between her neurotically strict speech patterns and attention to detail, as well as her almost immediate (non-romantic) attraction to Sheldon, she can be considered as Sheldon's female equivalent. She even shares his belief that the social sciences are "largely hoakum," despite her husband being an anthropologist. When she learns Howard lives with his mom and Raj can't talk to women while sober, she determines that they have an "ersatz homosexual marriage". When Leonard is kicked out of Penny's apartment, he returns to find Beverly and Sheldon butchering Journey's "Any Way You Want It" while playing Rock Band 2. [edit] References ^ Chuck Lorre Vanity Card #187 ^ "The Big Bran Hypothesis". The Big Bang Theory. October 1, 2007. No. 2, season 1. ^ a b "Pilot". The Big Bang Theory. September 24, 2007. No. 1, season 1. ^ a b c d "The Grasshopper Experiment". The Big Bang Theory. November 12, 2007. No. 8, season 1. ^ "Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory". The Big Bang Theory DVD featurette. ^ "The Bat Jar Conjecture". The Big Bang Theory. April 21, 2008. No. 13, season 1. ^ "The Middle-Earth Paradigm". The Big Bang Theory. October 29, 2007. No. 6, season 1. ^ "The Financial Permeability". The Big Bang Theory. February 2, 2009. No. 14, season 2. ^ a b c "The Luminous Fish Effect". The Big Bang Theory. October 15, 2007. No. 4, season 1. ^ a b "The White Asparagus Triangulation". The Big Bang Theory. November 24, 2008. No. 9, season 2. ^ "The Panty Piñata Polarization". The Big Bang Theory. November 10, 2008. No. 7, season 2. ^ "The Loobenfeld Decay". The Big Bang Theory. March 24, 2008. No. 10, season 1. ^ "The Jerusalem Duality". The Big Bang Theory. April 14, 2008. No. 12, season 1. ^ "The Shiksa Indeterminacy". The Big Bang Theory. May 5, 2008. No. 15, season 1. ^ "The Griffin Equivalency". The Big Bang Theory. October 13, 2008. No. 4, season 2. ^ "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem". The Big Bang Theory. November 3, 2008. No. 6, season 2. ^ "The Lizard-Spock Expansion". The Big Bang Theory. November 17, 2008. No. 8, season 2. ^ "The Vartabedian Conundrum". The Big Bang Theory. December 8, 2008. No. 10, season 2. ^ "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis". The Big Bang Theory. December 15, 2008. No. 11, season 2. [edit] See also The Big Bang Theory List of The Big Bang Theory episodes [edit] External links CBS.com - official site [hide]v • d • eThe Big Bang Theory Production: Episode list • Characters • Chuck Lorre • Bill Prady Actors: Johnny Galecki (Leonard) • Jim Parsons (Sheldon) • Kaley Cuoco (Penny) Simon Helberg (Howard) • Kunal Nayyar (Rajesh) • Sara Gilbert (Leslie) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Big_Bang_Theory" Categories: Sitcom characters by series