Mayim Bialik - Biography

Mayim Hoya Bialik (born December 12, 1975) is an American actress who also holds a PhD in neuroscience. Her most notable TV roles have been as Blossom Russo on NBC's Blossom and as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS's The Big Bang Theory.

Early life

Bialik was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Barry Bialik and Beverly Winkelman. Her grandparents emigrated in the late 1930s from Poland and Czechoslovakia/Hungary. Bialik was raised in Reform Judaism. Her given name means "water" in Hebrew.

Career

Bialik started her career as a child actress in the late 1980s. Her early roles included the horror film Pumpkinhead, her first acting job, and guest appearances on The Facts of Life and Beauty and the Beast. She appeared in three episodes of MacGyver as Lisa Woodman. In 1988, she appeared in Beaches (1988), playing Bette Midler's character as a young girl. She also appeared in the video for the song "Liberian Girl" by Michael Jackson.

In 1990 Bialik was tied to two television pilots, Fox's Molloy and NBC's Blossom. Molloy at first produced six episodes for a tryout run, followed by the shooting of the pilot special for Blossom. The latter actually aired two weeks before Bialik's Fox series, and ultimately garnered higher ratings than it. When Molloy folded after its six episodes, Blossom was pursued as a regular series. Blossom aired until 1995.

Between 1995 and 2005 Bialik mostly did voice work for cartoons, such as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Recess.

She appeared in the feature film Kalamazoo? released in late 2005. She appeared in three episodes of the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm as Jodi Funkhouser, the lesbian daughter of a friend of Larry David. Bialik also made guest appearances as a fictionalized version of herself in the series Fat Actress. Bialik had a guest appearance as a Hasidic Jew in an episode of Saving Grace. She had a recurring role as the high school guidance counselor in ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She also had an appearance on the Fox TV show 'Til Death in which she has a reunion of sorts with two of her Blossom costars- Jenna von Oÿ – who played Blossom’s quirky best friend Six – and Michael Stoyanov – who played Blossom’s older brother Anthony.

In 2010 she joined the cast of The Big Bang Theory as Amy Farrah Fowler. Her first appearance was in the finale of the third season of the show, where she was cast as a potential girlfriend for the character Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons). In the fourth season of the show, she started out as a recurring character playing Sheldon's "friend that's a girl, but not a girlfriend". Beginning with episode 8 of the 4th season, she became part of the main cast. Bialik's character is a neurobiologist, which corresponds to Bialik's real-life educational pursuits, as described below.

Prior to her joining the cast, in the episode "The Bat Jar Conjecture", Raj suggests recruiting the real-life Bialik to their Physics Bowl team, saying "You know who’s apparently very smart, is the girl who played TV’s Blossom. She got a PhD in neuroscience or something".

Personal life

Bialik attended Walter Reed Junior High School in North Hollywood, CA, located in the San Fernando Valley. At the end of Blossom, she chose to attend UCLA, although she also had been accepted to both Harvard and Yale. She stated that she wanted to stay close to her parents and did not want to move to the East Coast. She earned a bachelor's degree in 2000 in neuroscience, Hebrew, and Jewish studies, and went on to the PhD program in neuroscience. A 2002 interview stated that Bialik is now involved in Conservadox Judaism. She has appeared in several YouTube cameos as Blossom and Amy Farrah Fowler asking questions about Jewish beliefs. The videos are produced by Allison Josephs, Bialik's Judaism study partner, whom she met with the help of Partners in Torah.

She took a break from studies in 2005 to return to acting. Bialik completed her PhD in 2008, but is not pursuing an academic career in the near future, though her character on The Big Bang Theory is a neurobiologist. Her dissertation was an investigation of Prader-Willi syndrome.

She married Michael Stone on August 31, 2003, in a Victorian-themed ceremony with traditional Jewish customs (Bialik's husband, born a Latter Day Saint, converted to Judaism; several years later, Bialik's mother-in-law converted to Judaism as well). The couple have two sons together; Miles Roosevelt Bialik Stone was born on October 10, 2005, and Frederick Heschel Bialik Stone was born on August 15, 2008. She is a celebrity spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network.

Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel's national poet, was Mayim Bialik's great-great-grandfather's uncle.

She is vegan.

Filmography

External links

• Mayim Bialik's official website
• UCLA famous alumni