List of The Big Bang Theory franchise characters

The following is a list of characters from the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

Main Characters

Leonard Hofstadter, PhD

Leonard Leakey Hofstadter
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Johnny Galecki
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Title	Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, PhD
Occupation	Experimental physicist
Nationality	American

Leonard is a physicist from Caltech who rooms with Sheldon in their apartment building, in which the elevator always seems to be out of order. He keeps a whiteboard in their living room on which he works on experimental particle physics. While Sheldon's genius seems to be focused primarily in math and science, Leonard is insinuated to be proficient in literature and history as well as the sciences; he is able to solve a crossword puzzle in seconds, the answers being mostly literature based, e.g. Vladimir Nabokov. It is also insinuated that Leonard's IQ is not as high as Sheldon's (173, as it is stated by Leonard that their combined IQ is 360 and, in a later episode, Sheldon reveals his IQ is 187); Sheldon scoffs at Leonard's white board theories as common enough to be "scribbled on the wall of any men's room at MIT." (MIT may be intended as a derogatory term itself here, as both Leonard & Sheldon work at MIT rival Caltech.) He has pointed out that he was 24 years old when he received his Ph.D., not sixteen years old like Sheldon. Leonard feels at home with his genius colleagues, but wants more socially. He is reluctant to let Penny know about his recreational activities (such as Klingon Boggle) as he doesn't like to be seen as a nerd. He also dislikes his friends' habit of rattling off different trivial facts, something to which all the other geniuses enjoy both listening and participating. Sweet but sarcastic, Leonard also seems to be the most well-adjusted one of the group; he is quick to try new things apart from his nerd friends and, between Sheldon and him, is the only one who feels that he "should do something" when Penny begins to recount her recent breakup. Despite his attempts to reject his nerd status, he certainly is one, with his Star Wars hygiene products and his ability to blurt out the wrong things in front of women, such as when he's trying to invite Penny to lunch and mentions that curry is a natural laxative. He falls head over heels for Penny within seconds of spotting her and while at first it seems like lust rather than love, by the end of the pilot episode he has already announced to Sheldon, "our babies will be smart and beautiful." Sheldon, however, is quick to add, "not to mention imaginary." At the season 1 finale, he and Penny had their first date. Though both were skeptical, Leonard ended up giving Penny a very passionate kiss. As of yet, it is unknown if they are officially dating in season 2. He is named after Nobel prize winner Robert Hofstadter, actor/producer Sheldon Leonard, and famed archeologist Louis Leakey, whom his father had worked with. It is revealed in the pilot that Leonard once had a girlfriend that he dumped, who then moved back to her native country of Korea, according to Leonard "to mend her broken heart".

Sheldon Cooper, PhD

Sheldon Cooper
File:Sheldon Cooper.jpg
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Jim Parsons
In-universe information
Nickname	Shelly
Gender	Male
Title	Dr. Sheldon Cooper MSc, PhD
Occupation	Theoretical physicist
Family	Mary Cooper (mother) Missy Cooper (fraternal twin sister)
Nationality	American

Sheldon is Leonard's best friend, roommate, and colleague. Originally from East Texas, he's a theoretical physicist and like Leonard also keeps a whiteboard in the living room for scientific theories. Sheldon possesses a Master's degree and 2 PhDs, and conducts string theory research at Caltech. Unlike Leonard, he embraces his genius fully and doesn't mind sharing details of his life that Leonard finds embarrassing, such as a common activity being Klingon Boggle until 1 AM. It's insinuated that Sheldon's genius is concentrated fully on science, although he does have a fairly extensive general knowledge as well, shown by his comments regarding the introduction of the fork into Thailand. His IQ (of 187) is higher than Leonard's; as a result, he tends to question Leonard's theories. He was a child prodigy. When he was a child, he conducted experiments involving the height of stairs and deduced that if a step on a staircase is as little as 2 millimeters off, most people will trip (this resulted in his father breaking his clavicle). At age 14, he dabbled in lasers and this resulted in his being sent to boarding school; it is heavily implied in a CBS promotional clip that the government took Sheldon's laser away and hushed the college professor who witnessed the experiment. According to his mother, Sheldon also attempted to build a nuclear reactor at a young age in order to provide free electricity for his town; that failed after a government agent informed him that it was illegal to store yellowcake uranium in a shed. Sheldon graduated from high school very early; he asks Penny, in complete disbelief, "It took you four years to get through high school?!" He reveals to Penny he was eleven years old when he started college. At 14 he began graduate studies, received his first PhD at 16, and spent four years on his thesis.

Sheldon possesses some qualities commonly associated with being a prodigy, such as an inflated ego, social ineptness, and a lack of empathy. He worked as a visiting professor in Germany at age 15. He fails to understand not only the simplest sarcastic jokes made by Leonard, but also regards Penny's sadness over her break up with blatant confusion. That isn't to say Sheldon doesn't have a conscience; he's simply more likely to do what's scientifically ethical (not donate to a "high IQ sperm bank" because his sperm won't guarantee high IQ offspring) rather than morally and socially ethical (break into Penny's home to organize her things). Sheldon also remains unswayed by Penny's beauty, although he does acknowledge Penny's attractiveness (stating that no one can be that attractive and good at video-games at the same time). He refuses to sit anywhere other than his designated spot on the couch. He is calculating and cynical, believing that Leonard is only setting himself up for disappointment as he continues to have a crush on Penny.

Sheldon has a pronounced disdain for engineers, referring to them as both "semi-skilled labor" and "the Oompa Loompas of science." He is usually wearing a T-shirt over some sort of jumper.

He has an extremely attractive fraternal twin sister named Missy. He is named after actor/producer Sheldon Leonard.

Due to Sheldon's traits such as his cleanliness and organisation of the apartment, his lack of ability to understand sarcasm, his dislike of change, along with his purely logical state and mind and being a genius receiving a PhD at a young age would suggest signs of him having a high-functioning autism spectrum condition like Asperger Syndrome.

Penny

Penny
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Kaley Cuoco
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Waitress at The Cheesecake Factory
Nationality	American

Penny is Leonard and Sheldon's new neighbor across the hallway and is, as described by Wolowitz, a "cheesecake-scented goddess." She is an attractive waitress at the local Cheesecake Factory. She is also writing a semi-autobiographical story about a girl from Lincoln, Nebraska, who travels to Los Angeles to become an actress but ends up working at the Cheesecake Factory. The reason Penny moved in next door is that she recently split with her boyfriend of four years, Kurt, and was thrown out of their place. She says she still loves him even though he lied and cheated on her. She first meets their friends Wolowitz and Rajesh when she comes out of the shower in nothing but a towel. She's either ignorant of or all too aware of her effect on the boys, because within minutes of meeting them, she asks Leonard to retrieve her television set from her ex-boyfriend's apartment, which he immediately sets out to do. During the course of the story, it is not known if Penny returns Leonard's affections. It is rather clear, however, that she at least seems to enjoy Leonard's company, and likes Sheldon as a person. She does smile in "The Hamburger Postulate", when she hears that things are not working out between Leonard and Leslie. She is messy and disorganized but appears to like it that way. She is not intellectually gifted but does have a lot of knowledge about pop culture. This makes her a great contrast to the rest of the characters who are academically gifted but socially awkward. Whenever Penny goes on a rebound relationship, she picks up an attractive man and then has 36 hours of meaningless sex over the course of a weekend; afterward, the relationship deteriorates. She is better at the video game Halo than Sheldon which aggravates him especially when Penny teases him about it. She had her first date with Leonard after saying why she wants "to date a guy who truly cares for me" to which Leonard responded "what about me?" Before the date, Leonard gave Penny a very passionate kiss. Whether they are officially dating in season 2 is unknown.

Howard Wolowitz

Howard Wolowitz
File:Howard Wolowitz.jpg
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Simon Helberg
In-universe information
Nickname	Wolowizard
Gender	Male
Title	Howard Wolowitz, M.Eng
Occupation	Engineer
Religion	Jewish
Nationality	American

Wolowitz is an engineer at Caltech's Department of Applied Physics who often hangs out at Leonard and Sheldon's apartment. He designed a satellite that is currently orbiting a moon of Jupiter taking high-resolution photos. He doesn't show signs of discontentment like Leonard, but rather is confident enough to try to woo Penny with his knowledge of foreign languages, of which he knows six. Most of the languages were revealed in only the matter of one episode; in revealed order, they are French, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, and Persian. Hitting on Penny in different tongues has become a regular occurrence; one which annoys Leonard (and Penny) greatly. Wolowitz also knows Klingon because, as Sheldon stated, they all played Klingon Boggle together. Howard also claims to be a human beatbox (and gives a demonstration). Although he insists to the contrary, Wolowitz lives with his overbearing mother. Near the end of "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization", Wolowitz has a photo on his Facebook page captioned "Me and My Girlfriend," which depicts Penny sleeping on Wolowitz's shoulder during the fight between Leonard and Sheldon at the conference. Howard, unlike Sheldon and Leonard doesn't have a Ph.D. However, he likes pointing out that he has a master's degree in engineering. Howard is also fond of unusual belt buckles -- they have included a Nintendo controller, a silver Batman logo, a 45-RPM record insert, a Klingon communicator & and buckle containing the superhero the Flash.

Rajesh Koothrappali

Rajesh Koothrappali
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Kunal Nayyar
In-universe information
Nickname	Raj
Gender	Male
Occupation	Astrophysicist
Religion	Hindu
Nationality	Indian

Koothrappali is Wolowitz's best friend and yet another genius. His area of expertise is particle astrophysics. He is of Indian extraction (yet despises Indian food) and, like Wolowitz, has a love for Stephen Hawking. 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. His social anxiety around women seems to be indicative of selective mutism, and is inspired by a former coworker of Bill Prady's. When Penny spoke to him once, he voiced a lengthy inner monologue, reminiscing of his native customs (although he dislikes Indian food) and singing. More often than not, though, he just stays silent. Alcohol appears to suppress his social anxiety, where he has prolonged conversations with women after drinking. It is worth noting that when he regained sobriety, he was again unable to speak to Penny. When Wolowitz got a new phone with voice dialing, Leonard spoke gibberish into the phone, prompting it to call Koothrappali, which he said was "...a little bit racist." In "The Bat Jar Conjecture", he says a few words to Penny (sober) but then clasps his hands over his mouth. An experimental anti-anxiety drug enables him to talk fluently to women, but has side effects on his motor controls and mannerisms, eventually wearing off at the wrong moment.

Leslie Winkle

Leslie Winkle
First appearance	"The Fuzzy Boots Corollary"
Portrayed by	Sara Gilbert
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Physicist
Nationality	American

Leslie is another physicist who works in the same lab as Leonard. Whenever depicted in the lab, she is always using the equipment inappropriately to prepare food, such as flash-freezing a banana with liquid nitrogen and then shattering it with a hammer to put in her cereal, or using lasers to heat her Ramen noodles. Leonard tries to ask her out because he considers her to be in his league (indeed, she is his female equivalent) and they decide to kiss to see if they have chemistry. Though Leslie compliments Leonard on his kissing technique, Leslie feels no arousal, and thus, no date occurs. Leslie usually doesn't shave her legs and only started recently to imply sexual availability. She eventually puts forth an offer of sexual availability towards Leonard one evening after a string quartet practice, and the two engage in sexual intercourse, but she reveals that she only desires sex infrequently while distracted by a difficult project and subsequently dumps him. Leslie plays the violin in a string quartet. She also, at some point in the past, made Sheldon cry. She also was able to fix one of Sheldon's equations; this act greatly irritated him. Her catchphrase seems be "Goggles, Leonard. Goggles".

Other characters

Kurt (Brian Wade) (two episodes): Kurt is Penny's ex-boyfriend. He is a 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. Penny left him because he cheated on her. He makes an appearance during Penny's Halloween party.

Dr. Eric Gablehauser (Mark Harelik) (three episodes): 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 had a soft spot for Sheldon's mother Mary.

Mary Cooper (Laurie Metcalf) (one episode): Mary is Sheldon's long suffering Southern mother. 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 isn't book smart 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.

Laurie Metcalf played Jackie on Roseanne, making her the third returning actor.

Toby Loobenfeld (Leopold Houston) (DJ Qualls) (one episode): 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 due to the fact that 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.

Dennis Kim (Austin Lee) (one episode): Dennis Kim is a 15 year old genius from North Korea. The valedictorian of his graduating class at Stanford, Dr. Gablehauser hoped 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 a 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.

Missy Cooper (Courtney Henggeler) (one episode): 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. 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.

External links

• CBS.com - official site