Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D., is a fictional character on the CBS television series The
Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Johnny Galecki.
Leonard is an experimental physicist, who shares an apartment with colleague and best
friend Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
For his portrayal, Galecki was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe
Award in 2011.
Leonard has been described as the straight man of the series.
Penny is Leonard's next-door neighbor and main love interest, and the teasing of romance
between the two of them is a major force driving the series.
In "The Gorilla Dissolution", they finally become engaged.
Creation and casting Leonard is named after actor/producer Sheldon
Leonard, and Nobel Prize Laureate Robert Hofstadter.
Johnny Galecki was originally asked to play the role of Sheldon Cooper, but thought he
would be "better suited" for the character of Leonard.
Personality Originally from New Jersey and a graduate
of Princeton University, Leonard works as a Caltech experimental physicist, mainly working
with lasers, and shares an apartment with colleague Sheldon Cooper in Pasadena, California.
He is usually seen wearing his characteristic black thick-framed glasses, low-cut black
Converse All Stars sneakers, pastel hoodies or neutral-colored sweat jackets or a combination
of the two, brown or red trousers, and physics-themed T-shirts.
His various girlfriends have tried to change his outfits: Penny had no success while Stephanie
got him to wear dress shirts and sweaters, and Priya got him to briefly switch to dress
shirts, waistcoats and dark slacks; he reverted to his original outfits after she leaves for
India, but started eschewing his hoodies in favour of unbuttoned safari shirts and non-hooded
jackets towards the end of the seventh season, a trend that continued into the eighth season.
Although Leonard feels at home with his geek colleagues, he wants to be more social.
Among the main characters, he generally has the least amount of difficulty interacting
with "non-geek" individuals.
He is instantly captivated by Penny, and from the beginning sets out to date her.
In early episodes, Leonard is reluctant to let Penny know about his recreational activities,
as he does not want her to see him as a geek.
While certainly a geek by most definitions, he is less socially inept than Sheldon, Raj,
and Howard.
Leonard can also play the cello, although he holds the bow upside down and plays on
the finger board.
As seen in the season 1 episode "The Hamburger Postulate", he and Leslie Winkle practice
their instruments and then leave to have intercourse Despite his attempts to not appear to be a
geek, Leonard owns, among other things, Star Wars hygiene products, a prop of the One Ring,
an expansive Superman comic book collection and a Battlestar Galactica Colonial warrior's
flight suit.
Early in the series, Leonard tried to get rid of his collectables to impress Penny with
his maturity.
However, he changed his mind when he saw that Penny was already dating another man.
Because he has lived with Sheldon for many years, Leonard knows him better than his other
colleagues: this has led Sheldon to believe that Leonard is his best friend.
Nevertheless, Leonard often finds himself explaining Sheldon's behavior or serving as
a mediator between him and other people in many situations.
For instance, when Penny and Sheldon engaged in a fierce dispute, Leonard gave Penny Sheldon's
mother's phone number so she would call her son and scold him for his behavior, thus ending
the fight.
"The Staircase Implementation" features a flashback to when Leonard first moved in with
Sheldon.
Leonard explains to Penny that he moved in despite the difficulty of living with Sheldon
because the rent was so reasonable.
Shortly after moving in, during a rocketry experiment Leonard, Raj and Howard conducted,
Sheldon observed miscalculations Leonard made in mixing the rocket fuel and managed to avert
disaster by grabbing the fuel and placing it in their apartment building's elevator.
The resulting explosion disabled the elevator, thus explaining why the elevator is out of
order for the duration of the series.
Leonard explains that Sheldon, despite his tendency to alienate others, kept quiet about
Leonard's destruction of the elevator.
Despite Leonard's reasonable nature and friendly personality, he occasionally demonstrates
a mean streak.
These include deliberately triggering Sheldon's obsessive compulsive problems, mocking Howard
and Raj whenever they slip up, and making sniping comments when Penny's commitment issues
flare up.
In addition, he is often shown to be quite jealous, often feeling insecure and defensive
whenever Penny interacts with another guy, and on one occasion trying to frighten off
a British college student she was doing a project with, because Penny commented positively
on his accent.
Leonard's primary health concern is his lactose intolerance: his consuming melon or any dairy
products results in flatulence.
Leonard wears eyeglasses because of myopia, and cannot see without them.
On one occasion, when his glasses were broken at the movie theater, he had to surreptitiously
return to his apartment and retrieve his backup glasses.
In order to avoid detection by a sick Sheldon and Penny, who was nursing him, Howard and
Raj helped him to navigate through the living room by using a helmet camera.
Leonard states in one episode that he suffers from sleep apnea.
During his relationship with Leslie Winkle, he tells her that many members of his family
have died from heart disease and thus he has a genetic disposition to the condition.
At various points in the show, Sheldon also says that Leonard gets carsick unless he sits
in the front seat.
In season four, it was revealed that Leonard has asthma as well, and also has to use the
inhaler after intercourse.
Family All of the members of Leonard's family are
accomplished scientists, except for his younger brother Michael, who is a tenured law professor
at Harvard University.
Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist.
She has a personality almost identical to Sheldon's, including strict speech patterns,
lack of social conventions, and attention to detail, and she is principally responsible
for Leonard's difficult childhood.
Sheldon and Beverly have a friendly relationship where they share details of each other's lives
with Sheldon often failing to pass on significant information such as Leonard's parents divorcing
and the family dog Mitzy's death.
Leonard is upset with that fact that she tells Sheldon more than she tells him.
After a night out of bonding and drinking with Penny, Beverly kisses Sheldon, but realizes
there are no romantic feelings involved.
Due to his mother's views, Leonard never celebrated his birthday when he was a child, and when
she visited him she was not impressed with his unoriginal research.
Leonard revealed to Penny that he built a "hugging machine" when he was young in order
to compensate for the lack of affection from his mother.
He further stated that his father used to borrow it.
Beverly also belittles Leonard by pointing out that his brother and sister are more successful
in their respective fields than he is.
Leonard's brother, Michael, is a Harvard law professor and is engaged to the youngest appellate
court judge in New Jersey history, and his older sister is a cutting-edge medical researcher
working with gibbons to cure diabetes.
Leonard also dislikes Christmas because instead of gifts the Hofstadter kids had to turn in
papers to "Santa" which were graded the next day and in the course of six years he never
got over a "C minus", which in Sheldon's view was a true gift, because, by Sheldon's thoughts,
he never deserved over it.
Leonard had a childhood pet, a cat named Dr. Boots Hofstadter.
Leonard's father is briefly mentioned as an anthropologist.
Sheldon reveals that Leonard's middle name, "Leakey", comes from famed archaeologist Louis
Leakey, with whom Leonard's father had worked.
Leonard is embarrassed by his middle name and its humorous connotations, and rarely
mentions it, as the name is an obvious embarrassment.
Apparently his father was not very affectionate towards him either, when he mentions that
he had to compete with the bones of an Etruscan kid for his father's favour.
Though little is known about Leonard's extended family, a few references to it have been made.
In the first episode, Sheldon and Leonard discuss Leonard's grandmother, who had visited
them on Thanksgiving the year before.
She has Alzheimer's disease and apparently "had an episode" during her visit, which resulted
in her stripping off her clothes and carving the turkey.
On Beverly's first visit, she tells Leonard that his uncle Floyd has died, which greatly
upsets him.
Leonard also has several other uncles, which Sheldon says are all very bald, and when they
gather together, they look "like a half carton of eggs."
Leonard describes his aunt, however, as being "one of the hairiest women you'll ever meet".
Work Leonard has an IQ of 173, and was 24 years
old when he received his PhD from Princeton University.
Leonard also received a dissertation of the year award for his doctoral paper on experimental
particle physics.
Leonard has been established to have been a child prodigy, and a gifted scientist with
an impressive knowledge of theoretical physics.
His work as an experimental physicist often includes the use of lasers, such as a helium–neon
laser or free-electron laser, and his research topics have varied from Bose–Einstein condensates
and foundations of quantum mechanics to soft cosmic rays at sea level and development of
novel rocket propellants.
Leonard designs experiments in order to test theories but, according to Sheldon, his work
is mostly derivative and thus unimportant.
Although Leonard's attempts to disprove the existence of dark matter were made moot by
the work of another physicist, Leonard helped to solidify proof of the hypothetical matter's
existence with a photomultiplier, and was invited as keynote speaker to a topical conference
by the Institute of Experimental Physics for his successful research on super solids.
From the season 6 finale, The Bon Voyage Reaction" Leonard heads to the United Kingdom to work
on a physics project searching the hydrodynamics equivalent of the Unruh effect, sponsored
by Professor Stephen Hawking, for three months on a ship in the North Sea.
Relationships Leonard became interested in Penny almost
immediately after seeing her for the first time.
His infatuation with Penny becomes the major force that drives the series during the first
seasons.
By the end of the first season, Leonard finally managed to ask Penny out, and they had their
first date.
Subsequently, they broke up because Penny felt she was not as smart as Leonard would
like.
Besides Penny, Leonard has been involved with only a few other women.
One of Leonard's former girlfriends that is mentioned in several occasions is Joyce Kim,
who did not appear until the third season.
Leonard's friends recalled on many occasions that they were together for only 27 days,
after which Joyce, later revealed to be a spy, defected to North Korea.
Initially, after feeling that Penny was not for him, Leonard turned his attention to fellow
scientist Leslie Winkle.
The first time Leonard asked Leslie out, she rejected him, and his further relationships
with her proved to be only short-lived casual sex encounters that only happened to satisfy
Leslie's libido.
Leslie briefly started dating Leonard during Season 2, but when he failed to back her up
in an argument with Sheldon, she dumped him.
In the second season, Leonard began a stable relationship with a physician named Stephanie
Barnett.
Although the relationship went well, even earning Sheldon's approval, Leonard felt uncomfortable
with Stephanie moving in with him, and the relationship ended.
On another occasion, when Leonard's mother was visiting, he and Penny came very close
to having sex, but Leonard ruined the moment by suggesting that they were burying their
lifelong issues with their parents by doing so, which offended Penny.
In the second season finale, when Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, and Raj were due to leave
for a three-month scientific expedition to the North Pole, Penny privately expressed
sadness, and wish that he would not leave.
In the third season premiere, Leonard and Penny finally started a romantic relationship
and had intercourse for the first time.
However, the relationship ended after eight months, after Leonard told Penny he loved
her and took umbrage at her inability to reciprocate, which led to friction that was exploited by
guest star Wil Wheaton who appeared as a fictionalized version of himself, who observed and exacerbated
it in order to break them up in the middle of a bowling match Wheaton's team was having
against Leonard, Penny, Sheldon, Howard and Raj.
Shortly after his breakup with Penny, in "The Plimpton Stimulation", Leonard has a one-night
stand with Dr. Elizabeth Plimpton, a physicist he admires, when Sheldon invited her to stay
in their apartment for a brief visit.
This encounter causes some tension between Leonard and Penny, who is somewhat judgmental
of Leonard's doing so.
However, the two later resolve their feelings and their friendship continues.
In the third season finale, "The Lunar Excitation", after Penny's failed attempts to move on from
her relationship with Leonard, she becomes intoxicated and has sex with him.
In the morning, Leonard believes that their relationship has resumed, though Penny tells
him that the previous night was a mistake.
This causes a strain on their friendship; at the end of the episode, Leonard becomes
intoxicated and tries to have intercourse with her, prompting Penny to push him out
of her apartment, to which Leonard suspects a double standard.
He immediately makes the same advances towards Leslie Winkle, who replies 'Let me think about
it" and slams the door in his face.
Throughout the fourth season, it becomes obvious that Penny is still in love with Leonard.
It is unclear whether or not Leonard has noticed this, though he clearly is still interested
in Penny.
In "The Benefactor Factor", a woman propositions Leonard in exchange for a large donation to
the physics department; he initially resists and she admits that she planned to make the
donation anyway, after which they engage in a one-night stand.
Leonard arrives home the next morning, whereupon Penny recognizes his "walk of shame" and Sheldon
thinks Leonard has a future in becoming a gigolo to rich ladies in exchange for donations.
Leonard also has an affair with Raj's younger sister Priya, despite a pinky swear with Howard
that neither of them would attempt to make a move on her, and Raj giving his strong disapproval.
When Priya returns, she and Leonard begin a relationship.
Raj strongly opposes this, and Penny is secretly uncomfortable with Leonard dating someone
else, eventually breaking down and crying while talking with her friend Amy Farrah Fowler.
Once again, Leonard is unaware of Penny's true feelings.
Subsequently, Priya pressures Leonard into ending his friendship with Penny, which he
attempts with extreme reluctance.
Penny complies, though it is clear that she does not want Leonard out of her life.
Penny eventually resolves to stay in Leonard's life by ingratiating herself to Priya.
In the Season 4 finale, Leonard runs into Penny and Raj as they come out of his room
in the morning, just after Leonard and Priya appear to break up upon Leonard's learning
that Priya is soon moving back to India.
At the start of Season 5, Leonard and Priya are trying to maintain a long-distance relationship
via Skype with Priya continuing to treat Leonard like a submissive partner.
Despite being the most eager to have sex, Leonard proves here he is quite awkward in
these situations.
Leonard later goes to a wedding with Amy, and they seem to take a liking to each other,
though Sheldon disapproves, karate-chopping Leonard and saying, "She's not for you...not
for you!".
Later, despite feeling that he and Priya were in love and might get married, Leonard finds
himself attracted to a comic book artist named Alice.
The attraction is mutual, and they even share a kiss.
Right when they are about to have sex, however, he tells Alice that he has a girlfriend, thus
ending the relationship.
Leonard then decides to confess his behavior to Priya via Skype, but he is shocked to learn
that Priya has also betrayed him, sleeping with her former boyfriend; Priya defends that
they both slipped up a little, but Leonard corrects her saying that he slipped a little,
while she slipped a lot, bringing the conversation to a strained end.
In the next episode, Leonard tells Sheldon that he is single, implying that he and Priya
have broken up; his actions since then have confirmed their split occurred.
Through the fourth and fifth seasons, Penny was still single and dating, though when intoxicated,
she has confessed that she regrets breaking up with Leonard.
In "The Ornithophobia Diffusion", Leonard and Penny go to the movies as friends.
Leonard decides that since they are no longer dating, he can be honest and does not have
to pay for everything or do whatever Penny wants.
The two bicker all evening and sabotage each other's attempts to chat up people in the
bar.
Penny decides that she likes the new, more assertive Leonard.
Leonard sees this as another opportunity to grovel and try to get Penny to sleep with
him, so she leaves.
On the spur of the moment in "The Recombination Hypothesis", Leonard asks Penny out on a date
after he imagined what getting back with her might be like.
Their real date ends successfully and they agree to take their relationship slow in "The
Beta Test Initiation".
During their renewed relationship Penny has dismissed comments about him ever leaving
or dumping her or about worrying about his unfaithfulness around other women and strippers
as in the episode "The Stag Convergence."
After Penny suggested having sex in "The Launch Acceleration", Leonard breaks the mood by
proposing to her accidentally.
They later meet and Penny does have the courage to tell him "no" and not break up with him
as she did two years previously when he told her that he loved her.
However, their relationship is still obviously strained.
Leonard and Penny finish season 5 watching Howard being launched into space while holding
hands to comfort each other.
With the start of season 6, he wants a reluctant Penny to define their relationship in "The
Date Night Variable".
Penny finally does admit her love to Leonard, in "The 43 Peculiarity".
Penny and Leonard awkwardly stared at each other before running off in opposite directions.
Leonard, though, was buoyed by optimism over Penny's admission.
Alex Jensen asks Leonard out to dinner in "The Egg Salad Equivalency" which boosts Leonard's
ego because two beautiful women are interested in him, however, Alex's interest makes Penny
insecure.
After another dispute with Sheldon, Leonard tries to move in with Penny in "The Spoiler
Alert Segmentation" however she is not ready.
During their Valentine's Day dinner in "The Tangible Affection Proof", Leonard again tries
to propose to Penny and she cuts him off quickly.
She admits that she is very happy with him, but she also admits to commitment issues and
the thought of being married forever really "freaks" her out.
Leonard then tells her that when she is ready to get married, she can propose to him.
In the season finale, Leonard leaves for an overseas job for four months and Penny is
confident enough in their relationship to wait for him.
In "The Gorilla Dissolution", Leonard and Penny become engaged.
See also List of The Big Bang Theory characters
References