Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch: From Childhood To Night Court

When Melissa Rauch made her first appearance as Bernadette, Howard's (Simon Helberg) blind date, on CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" in 2009, it didn't seem likely she'd be coming back. The pair hardly hit it off, with Howard offering crude jokes and questions about her interests and Bernadette indifferently swatting each one away. But then, at dinner, they suddenly bonded over — of all things — their meddling mothers. A spark was kindled, and a recurring role was born.

Shocked viewers realized the graceless (but admittedly lovable) Howard had finally found his perfect match. And the romance, which would lead to marriage in Season 5, came as a surprise to Rauch, too. "I was so grateful when 'Big Bang' happened," she told Backstage. "[I] was supposed to be a one-time guest star!"

Landing on a hit series was a major coup for the up-and-coming actress, and it didn't happen overnight. Rauch was just a kid when she got hooked on comedy, started working toward her chosen career, and began developing the character that would one day get her a big break as Bernadette — and take her even further from there.

Melissa Rauch may be surrounded by the glitz and glam of Hollywood these days, but she came from a much humbler place: suburban New Jersey. Her parents were New Yorkers who, like many in the late '70s and early '80s, migrated across the river to raise their family. Her father, David Rauch, attended Baruch College for his bachelor's degree and later earned an MBA from New York's Pace University. Her mother grew up in Queens, New York, and received a secretarial degree from New York Community College.

After relocating out of New York, the Rauchs settled in Marlboro Township, New Jersey. While the area today is a bigger, bustling suburb, home to many residents who regularly commute to New York City, it was still a relatively small community in the early '80s, with less than half the population it has now. That's where Melissa Rauch would spend her formative years and first got a taste of making people laugh. "I got my father laughing hysterically and that was just the best feeling," Rauch told NJ.com. "I even started doing it for show and tell."

From her first awkward car ride with Howard on "The Big Bang Theory," Melissa Rauch created a character that set Bernadette apart as smart, cute, and quick-witted. But if there's one trait fans can't forget about her, it's her chirpy, childish voice. Who talks like that? Apparently, Rauch's mother. "My mother sounds very similar to Bernadette," Rauch told TV Insider. "She's got a very high-pitched voice except with a New Jersey accent, and I grew up imitating her."

Rauch also mimicked stars she saw on TV, like Whoopi Goldberg and Don Knotts. It was a great way to overcome her natural shyness at school, but it didn't always work out as planned.

"I would memorize stand-up sets that weren't my own, which I didn't realize was not allowed, since I was seven years old. They were actually really inappropriate for a kid my age," Rauch told RogerEbert.com. "I remember memorizing a Whoopi Goldberg HBO special. I went into class and did a weird stand-up set from the special that dropped a lot of F-bombs, and the teacher called my mom and was like, 'Your daughter doesn't talk and then came in and did this show-and-tell where she was using very inappropriate language.'"

As Melissa Rauch got older, her interest in performing comedy and getting onstage grew stronger. She also found more appropriate outlets to express herself. She spent most of her free time doing community theater, attending theater camp, and making up shows in her basement with her brother, Ben. Raised Jewish, it made sense that Rauch even had a comedy club-themed bat mitzvah when she was a young teen.

Rauch later told Inside Jersey she couldn't remember a time when she didn't want to be an actress. Throughout her childhood, the adults around her supported and guided her toward her dreams. "I went to Brookdale Arts Camp for my entire childhood and had a fantastic theater counselor there who gave me some of my first comedic sketches to do," she said. "I also had a terrific theater teacher at Marlboro High School who taught me a great deal and was very encouraging."

Eventually, her parents began taking Melissa to acting auditions in New York, and after attending a local NJ college, she began studying acting at Marymount Manhattan. It was there that one of her voice coaches helped her ditch her Jersey accent. "I was awwwful," Rauch admitted. "I mean, can we tawk about the cawfee they got ovuh heah, or what?"

For most of us, our time at university or college is when we discover who we are and what we want to become. We learn new skills that we can apply to our early careers and we also meet people who become lifelong friends. This was all true of Melissa Rauch, too, but another milestone marked her college days because it was at Marymount Manhattan College that she met her future husband. 

"We were writing partners all throughout school," Rauch said of her now-husband Winston Beigel in Interview magazine. "We would write sketches together. We enjoyed doing it for fun. When we graduated from college, we were waiting tables and looking for jobs, so we wrote a one-woman show for me." That show was "The Miseducation of Jenna Bush," a story about the daughter of the 43rd President as she embarks on a career as a school teacher. "We were writing [the role] for me with this idea of making it through Jenna Bush's voice, and exploring the Bush presidency through her eyes."

That play turned out to be transformative, too. After performing "The Miseducation of Jenna Bush" at the New York Fringe Festival, Melissa and Winston decided to take the production west, bringing her to Los Angeles and Hollywood for the first time. The pair were married in 2007 and they've been together in L.A. ever since. 

By the time she was in college, Melissa Rauch realized that comedians write their own material — so that's what she did, performing her stand-up sets in New York City clubs. "I did stand-up for about 10 years in New York, and I was one [of] those comedians who started out just handing out fliers on the street in the freezing cold to get people to come see comedy in order to get stage time," Rauch told RogerEbert.com. 

But even after doing stand-up and constantly writing with her future husband Winston Beigel, Rauch's professional career seemed stuck in neutral after she'd graduated. "I don't think people knew what to do with me. I'd have people say maybe I should dye my hair, lose weight, gain weight — it was never a specific box you could check, it was just, 'Yeah, sorry, not my cup of tea,'" she told Inside Jersey. "And, of course, I was really green, too. I'd go out for parts in cargo pants and a jean jacket, without any makeup." It's not as if Rauch didn't land any gigs — for example, she was excited to be part of the comedic VH1 news series "Best Week Ever" for four years. But she still needed her big break.

Most of our readers probably became aware of Melissa Rauch thanks to her role on "The Big Bang Theory." But her on-screen career goes back further than that. While performing on "Best Week Ever," she also landed her first acting role in the 2006 black comedy "Delirious," written and directed by Tom DiCillo. Not to be confused with the 1991 John Candy movie of the same name, "Delirious" stars Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman, and Gina Gershon.

Pitt plays a homeless teen named Toby Grace who works his way into becoming a gofer for a New York paparazzo named Les Galantine (Buscemi). Rauch appears in a small role alongside the likes of Callie Thorne, Kevin Corrigan, David Wain, and rocker Elvis Costello. Another New York comic turned actor, Kristen Schaal, also lists "Delirious" among her first films.

It would be two more years before Rauch found her way to a new television gig, but when she did, it was with a recurring role on the short-lived drama "12 Miles of Bad Road" starring Lily Tomlin, Mary Kay Place, and Leslie Jordan. The series only lasted six episodes, but Rauch appeared in half of those. Still, it wasn't long before she was turning heads in Tinseltown, and within a year had been cast on another network series.

Many young actors breaking into television get their start with years of uncredited background roles before graduating to single-episode guest appearances in minor parts. Sometimes it can take actors a decade before they get their first major, recurring role and longer before they get to join a show's main cast. Melissa Rauch, however, got ahead of most actors early in her career with her three-episode stint on "12 Miles of Bad Road," and it was just a year later that she joined the main cast of a high-profile network sitcom.

No, we're not talking about "The Big Bang Theory" just yet. Instead, it was "Kath and Kim," an NBC sitcom starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair. The series was an American remake of an Australian favorite, with Shannon as suburban mother Kathy, and Blair as her prissy daughter Kim. John Michael Higgins played Shannon's love interest with Mikey Day playing Blair's partner Craig. Rauch, meanwhile, took the role of Tina, Kim's best friend, who is always there to take part in whatever wild-eyed antics she's getting up to.

Though it was Rauch's first role as a series regular, it wasn't destined to last. After just one season — which was cut short due to plummeting ratings and dreadful reviews – the series was canned, with just 17 total episodes produced. Its cancellation, however, did free Rauch up for work when "The Big Bang Theory" came calling later that same year.

Just a few months after "Kim and Kath" was canceled, Melissa Rauch made her debut in Season 3 of "The Big Bang Theory" as Bernadette, a friend of Kaley Cuoco's character Penny. While the move transformed Rauch's career practically overnight, she might not have been considered for the part at all were it not for a last-minute change to her wardrobe.

Walking into her audition, Rauch noticed just how many young women were trying out for the part on what was already one of TV's hottest shows. So she decided to try and set herself apart. "I wore glasses, even though it didn't say Bernadette wore glasses," Rauch said in "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series" in 2022. "I had crappy $10 prop glasses in the glove compartment of my car for auditions ... but I put on the glasses as a last-minute decision." As it turns out, the glasses didn't just help her get the job, but producers noted what a great idea they were for the character and made them part of her official look.

Though she was only intended to appear in a single episode, Rauch immediately impressed the showrunners and quickly became a recurring character in Season 3. The following season she was bumped up to series regular. Suddenly a main cast member on "The Big Bang Theory," Rauch had transformed herself from little-known comic to prime-time network star in just a few short years.

Joining "The Big Bang Theory" in its third year, Melissa Rauch remained with the highly-rated sitcom through the remaining nine seasons. Over that time, her character Bernadette became more and more important to the fabric of the series, eventually marrying Howard (Simon Helberg) and becoming a mother. It wasn't just her character who became more important, but Rauch as well, as she helped fight for equal pay for the cast of the series.

The year was 2017, and contract renewals were the topic of discussion. Both Rauch and co-star Mayim Bialik, both of whom joined the show later in its run, were looking for a raise. Not only were they were doing valuable work on one of TV's most popular, beloved comedies, but their paychecks were well below those of the series' original five leads: While the likes of Jim Parsons and Jonathan Galecki were pulling in a fat $1 million per episode, Rauch and Bialik were earning just $175,000. 

Though the pair never did manage to get the same amount as their co-stars, they did hold out long enough to more than triple their per-episode pay. And it wasn't just Rauch and Bialik's hard-line stance that won the day, but the support of their fellow castmates. In addition to Parsons and Galecki, stars Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar each took a $100,000-per-episode pay cut.

Starring in "The Big Bang Theory" opened up doors for Melissa Rauch both in television and at the movies. It led to guest appearances on "The Office" and "True Blood" in 2010, voice roles in "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and "Scooby Doo," and later, films like "Are You Here" and "Ice Age: Collision Course." But it also had a profound impact on Rauch's personal life, and not just because it made her a bona fide star. 

While starring in "TBBT," Rauch became acquainted with a young fan named Oscar Keogh, whose mother had contacted her about her son's battle with a pediatric cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). Following Oscar's tragic passing in 2019, Rauch and Oscar's mother founded the charity known as Oscar's Kids, which aims to help children and families dealing with the disease.

But philanthropic efforts aren't the only byproduct of Rauch's role on "TBBT." During her time on the show, she portrayed Bernadette's struggle to balance work with being a new mother, something that helped Rauch when it came time for her to do the same. "The guilt, self-doubt, love, and navigating those first few months of postpartum were all explored so beautifully in the Bernadette storylines that the writers crafted for her," Rauch told Forbes in 2021. "When I experienced it myself, it couldn't prepare me for it fully, but there was a little bit of a dress rehearsal element to it."

From new perspectives on life to a bigger and bolder career, starring in "The Big Bang Theory" had an enormous impact on Melissa Rauch. The series allowed her to explore new acting opportunities and gave her a financial security she'd never had before, but it also had an unforeseen side effect: Turning her into a TV pinup girl.

Behind the geeky glasses and the squeaky, high-pitched voice she used for her role as Bernadette, fans also recognized a fiery soul. In 2013, her newfound status as one of the hottest women on television reached a crescendo with a steamy photo shoot for Maxim magazine. Typically dressed head to toe in humble blouses, sweaters, and dresses on "The Big Bang Theory," Rauch tore it all off for a bondage-inspired shoot that saw her decked out in far less than what she's typically seen in on-screen.

Showing more skin than you might expect, the photo spread made clear that Rauch was very different from her squeaky-clean persona as Bernadette, with the actor wearing a black bustier that left little to the imagination. And that wasn't the end of it, because she posed for a similarly hot photo shoot for FHM magazine a year later, showing just how boundary-pushing she could be.

First introduced in a 1992 episode of "Batman: The Animated Series," the character of Harley Quinn was an instant fan favorite and has since become one of DC Comics' most bankable characters. In her earliest on-screen animated appearances, she was voiced by Arleen Sorkin, and when a live-action Harley came to the big screen, it was Margot Robbie playing her in in the DCEU.

Thanks in no small part to her role as Bernadette on "The Big Bang Theory" — where her exuberant, high-pitched voice was often reminiscent of Harley herself — Rauch was chosen to take over the role in animation for a special 2017 project. Though it wasn't her first foray into voice acting, playing Harley Quinn in the direct-to-video movie "Batman and Harley Quinn" was her biggest role yet in the medium. Ironically, just a couple of years later, it was Rauch's "TBBT" co-star Kaley Cuoco who succeeded her in the role when Cuoco voiced the clownish criminal miscreant in her own TV series, "Harley Quinn."

Since her stint as Harley, Rauch has continued with voice work. She starred in "Cats and Dogs 3: Paws Unite!," appeared in episodes of "Fire Buds" and "Animaniacs," and even played Marvel superhero the Wasp in "Marvel's Ant-Man." 

Melissa Rauch started out as a stand-up comic and writer, and thanks to the higher profile afforded to her by "The Big Bang Theory," she had the opportunity to return to her screenwriting roots in 2015. Together, she and her real-life husband Winston Rauch penned the feature film "The Bronze," the story of Hope Ann Greggory (also played by Rauch), a gymnast and Olympic bronze medal winner who relishes her small-town celebrity and isn't happy when up-and-comer Maggie Townsend (Haley Lu Richardson) begins to steal her spotlight.

A surprisingly raunchy dark comedy, "The Bronze" was both a return for Rauch to writing and her first produced feature film screenplay. But it was also driven by some of her own life experiences. "I like creating anything that helps me to contextualize an experience of life I'm struggling to understand personally," she said in an interview with Kveller.com. "One of these experiences is that of fame. It's a weirdly magnetic and seductive force in American culture, yet if you do attain it, it has literally no substance and it's incredibly fickle ... 'The Bronze' is an exploration of a star's rise and fall from a pedestal — a topic that has long been a source of fascination for me and my husband."

A comic, screenwriter, and actor, Melissa Rauch added something new to her resume in 2017: mother. She welcomed her first child in December of that year and as with many, her newest role changed her life forever. It also motivated her into a new profession as a children's book author. Two years later, she released her first kid's book, "The Tales of Tofu."

"It's a really sweet, fun little story about a cube of tofu who has been hiding in the background and then gains confidence and makes friends by being the star of its school play, and along the way shares really fun recipes for families," Rauch told People while promoting the book. More than just a storybook, "The Tales of Tofu" also includes a number of tofu reciples for parents to make with their children. 

"I find that whenever you're trying to introduce your kid to anything, books are such a great way to do that," Rauch told the outlet. "You follow Tofu along this journey and it's sharing these recipes and then once we read the book, then it's exciting to see how we can have it in our real lives." Rauch added a son to the family in 2020, but whether she'll follow "Tofu" up with more stories remains to be seen.

"Celebrity Jeopardy" began as a series of prime-time specials but became its own series in 2022. While her "Big Bang Theory" co-host Mayim Bialik became a full-time host of the show, Rauch had the chance to actually compete as a contestant, appearing in a November episode alongside "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Ray Romano and writer-producer and actor Joel Kim Booster. 

In her appearance on the show, Rauch was playing for her own charity, Oscar's Kids. While Booster took home the top prize that night, raising $19,000 for his charity and continuing on to face Wil Wheaton and John Michael Higgins, both Romano and Rauch were still awarded $30,000 for their own charities. Unfortunately, though she put up a good fight in the episode, Rauch didn't score a single dollar by the end of Final Jeopardy. But that didn't seem to dampen her enthusiasm for the game show. When asked by host Mayim Bialik how the experience of losing everything compared to her elementary school days, she did acknowledge, "I learned a lot."

Following the end of "The Big Bang Theory" in 2019, Melissa Rauch took some time to find the right next project, rather than jump straight into another series. She found it in 2023 with the revival of the 1980s classic "Night Court." This time, Rauch wasn't just a member of an ensemble, but was the lead character. She stars as Judge Abby Stone, the daughter of the original show's Judge Harry T. Stone, played by Harry Anderson, who passed away in 2018.

While most of the original cast was absent, John Laroquette returned, reprising his role as lawyer Dan Fielding. Together with India de Beaufort, Kapil Talwalkar, Lacretta, and Nyambi Nyambi, Rauch helped the series earn strong reviews in its debut year, with critics finding the series familiar yet fresh. Rauch herself received a positive response for her charming performance as newly-installed Judge Stone, who struggles to live up to the legacy of her father while trying to carve her own path — much like the show itself.

Thanks to Rauch and the rest of the show's cast, the show was a hit in its debut season in 2023, with a second season arriving late the same year. It also established Rauch as a legitimate leading lady, able to shoulder the burdens of a prime-time network series. Where does Rauch go from here? Only time will tell.