The cast of The Big Bang Theory may have transformed over the years that they spent on the show,
but that's nothing compared to the difference between the stars now as adults and what they
were like as children.
Born in Belgium, Johnny Galecki's father was stationed in the country at the time with
the U.S. Air Force.
However, it wasn't long before the family moved to the United States, so Galecki mostly
grew up in Oak Park, Illinois.
Even back then, he had dreams of Hollywood.
In a 2018 interview with Variety, Galecki said he'd been talking about being an actor
since the age of three, despite having no family members who knew anything about acting.
His family was poor, with little money to go to the movies, but the young Galecki was
convinced he knew what he wanted to do with his life, and he went after his dreams.
"Think you might be overdoin' it, Dad?"
"Russ, when was the last time I overdid anything?"
Galecki followed his passion and started racking up credits in movies like 1989's National
Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and on shows like Blossom in 1991.
Of course, he also appeared on Roseanne, playing troubled teen David Healy, the boyfriend of
Darlene, aka Sara Gilbert, another alum of The Big Bang Theory and someone else who was
an adorable kid.
"Aw, look, honey, our kids are necking."
Jim Parsons was born and raised in Texas, just like his Big Bang Theory character Sheldon
Cooper.
That explains why even Texas natives know that his character's Texas accent is spot-on.
"Sure, why not?"
In 2015, Entertainment Tonight discussed what Parsons was like as a kid at a time when,
as an incredibly successful adult, he was receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame.
While he was described as shy, Parsons was also known for being kind.
He was voted friendliest in his class as a child, but Parsons himself admitted that he
was also never accused of being the coolest kid on the block.
Still, his ability to be nice to basically everyone around him did manage to save him
from a lot of childhood bullying.
"Luckily, I never experienced a wedgie or something."
After kick starting her career with commercial work, young Kaley Cuoco graduated from commercials
to work in movies.
She played Maureen McCormick, the actress who played Marcia Brady, in the made-for-TV
movie Growing Up Brady in 2000, and co-starred in the horror flick The Hollow in 2004.
Cuoco also appeared on Northern Exposure, My So-Called Life, Ellen, and The Wonderful
World of Disney, among plenty of other gigs.
Before The Big Bang Theory, though, her biggest TV credit might have been playing Bridget
Hennessy on the hit sitcom 8 Simple Rules.
"Oh, please, my boyfriend does not work at a movie theater."
"Welcome to Mantras Theaters!"
"Oh my god, my boyfriend works at a movie theater!"
But before that, Cuoco was a kid from California who was a nationally-ranked amateur tennis
player, landing at the #54 spot for Girls' 14 Doubles in 1998.
Cuoco was a budding tennis star from the age of three, but finally moved over to a full-time
acting career in 2001.
In an interview with Self, Cuoco explained that her parents always encouraged her to
do more than one thing, which explains why she branched out into both acting and tennis.
Even with The Big Bang Theory's success, she never considered acting the only pursuit in
her life.
Simon Helberg was born in Los Angeles and was likely introduced to the industry by his
parents.
His dad Sandy is an actor, and his mother Harriet is a casting director.
He also met fellow future stars from a young age, going to school with actor Jason Ritter,
the son of the great John Ritter.
In a 2014 interview, Ritter explained that he was drawn to Helberg from a young age because
he and his friends seemed to be "out of the hierarchy" of a typical high school.
Over time, Helberg invited Ritter into his friend group.
The two became college roommates, and remain friends today.
Helberg's acting career really took off in the early 2000s, with early roles in films
like National Lampoon's Van Wilder and Old School.
Before The Big Bang Theory took off, he got a major break when he was cast as one of the
stars of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Kunal Nayyar, aka The Big Bang Theory's Raj Koothrappali, was born in London, England.
His family moved to India when he was four years old and he grew up in New Delhi, where
his parents still live.
He then moved to the U.S. in 1999 after graduating from high school to go college in America.
It was there that his interests shifted into acting.
However, the cute kid didn't learn his comedic ways in school.
During a 2015 interview with The Huffington Post, Nayyar explained that he was the youngest
boy in his family, and learned to use his sense of humor as a defense mechanism.
And while Nayyar is certainly good at making people laugh, he also thinks his story can
help others.
He believes that his many talk show appearances can help him share his story of a kid from
New Delhi who became a star, and perhaps that will inspire other people to follow their
dreams.
Another former child star who charmed audiences with her adorable ways is Mayim Bialik, who
appeared on The Big Bang Theory as neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler.
She was also, of course, the star of Blossom, which featured a small appearance by a young
Johnny Galecki way back when.
As an adult, Bialik revealed during an interview on Conan that she shared her first "stage
kiss" with Galecki.
"It might have been my first real-life kiss also."
But even before that, Bialik had plenty of other on-screen gigs, popping up on The Facts
of Life, Webster, Murphy Brown, Doogie Howser, M.D., MacGyver, Empty Nest, and The Wonder
Years.
Of course, there was also her amazing role in Beaches as a spunky young performer named
CC Bloom, who's played as an adult by Bette Midler.
"I hate school, and I like taking singing lessons.
I got to sing at my father's dry cleaning convention.
I was a hit.
See ya later alligator!
Cecilia Carol Bloom."
However, despite being famous, the actress who was raised in Los Angeles and went to
North Hollywood High School has the same struggles as lots of non-famous kids.
In her book Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart, and Spectacular, Bialik revealed that
she was teased frequently as a child, and often felt left out.
Hopefully now that she's a mother herself, she's passing along her lessons to her own
kids.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Melissa Rauch, who you'll recognize from The Big Bang Theory
as Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, admitted to USA Today in 2011 that it wasn't easy to
get rid of her accent so she could act.
However, she was able to bring it out whenever her character impersonated her mother-in-law.
Rauch admitted that it's a joy when she has to pretend to be Howard's mother on the show,
because it brings her back to her "East Coast roots."
"Does he like the pancakes?!"
"He didn't try them yet!"
Rauch also loves to share pics of her younger self on Instagram.
In March 2015, she posted a photo of herself as an adorable little one with ringlets and
frills.
The photo was a gift from Rauch's mother, who noted that young Melissa herself had chosen
the overalls and tutu.
Rauch also showed that she was keen on being in the spotlight even as a child.
In February 2019, she shared a shot of herself as a kid in full performance mode.
In the caption, Rauch noted that the photo was from an early attempt to recreate Little
Shop of Horrors in her childhood basement.
Like many of the Big Bang Theory cast, Sara Gilbert is also a former child star.
She also happens to be from a family of child stars.
Her older sister is actress Melissa Gilbert, best known for playing Laura on the hit series
Little House on the Prairie.
Sara jumped into the business herself in 1984 as a sweet-faced kid when she was only seven
years old and appeared in a TV movie titled Calamity Jane.
Just four years later, she landed the role of the young Darlene Conner on Roseanne, where
she first met Johnny Galecki, who became a lifelong friend.
The two seem to keep reuniting onscreen even now, which helps explain how Sara landed the
role of Leslie Winkle on The Big Bang Theory.
While working in the industry at such a young age can be a terrible experience for others
and sometimes lead to self-destructive behavior, Sara says it saved her life.
On an episode of The Talk in 2016, she said she felt lucky to have had the creative outlet
of acting at a young age.
Gilbert was also careful to add, though, that child acting always comes with its downsides,
and she was lucky to have a positive experience.
Thankfully, she seems to have gotten the best from her child star years, and continues to
work today on Roseanne sequel The Conners.
Christine Baranski appeared on The Big Bang Theory as Leonard's less-than-affectionate
mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter.
Baranski was born in Buffalo, New York, and studied at New York City's famous Juilliard
School.
Juilliard's rigorous training gave her a chance to hone her acting skills from a young age,
but also offered opportunities to be a little more daring.
While at the respected school, Baranski was presented with $1,000 for being "the most
hard-working, economically needy student."
While the money was supposed to be used for living expenses, the actress admitted to The
New York Times in 2011 that she had other plans for it.
According to Baranski, she took the scholarship money, got a passport, and was off to Europe
that next day.
Baranski, who was also class president and looked more like a sweetly innocent student
than a plane-hopping rebel when she was young, still feels a sense of pride over the trip.
No wonder she was destined for a long and successful career.
Baranski began appearing in films and television in the 1980s, and gained a reputation as a
major talent through classics like The Birdcage and Chicago.
Known to The Big Bang Theory fans as Caltech scientist Barry Kripke, actor John Ross Bowie
was born in New York City.
For school, he headed upstate to Ithaca College, where he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree
in English.
But being from the Big Apple didn't urge him to take a bite out of the acting business.
In fact, it had the opposite effect for Bowie.
In a 2011 interview, the actor admitted that he was intimidated by acting because he had
so many friends fighting to make ends meet.
Eventually, he chose to follow his dreams rather than hold back, but it wasn't until
his late 20s that he was able to actually make a living as a working actor.
To be honest, he didn't exactly give off a vibe that screamed "future Hollywood star"
when he was a kid.
While he was certainly cute as a child who kind of resembled Superbad's McLovin at times,
he then went on to a teenage stage that featured puffy hair and even a bowtie.
Oh so snazzy!
However, it is pretty awesome that he went from a kid who played with a Luke Skywalker
toy to a grown-up who was able to attend the Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiere.
One of the reasons Wil Wheaton appeared on The Big Bang Theory is because the characters
on the show, especially Sheldon, were fans of Star Trek.
Specifically, Sheldon was a major fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Wheaton
played the young prodigy Wesley Crusher.
In fact, Wheaton himself can relate to the fandom.
In a 2016 interview with CNET he noted that he was a huge Star Trek fan as a kid too,
and starring on The Next Generation was a dream come true for him.
But that wasn't Wheaton's first foray into the business.
Along with other roles, the young actor who was a ridiculously cute kid also voiced a
character for 1982's animated classic The Secret of NIMH.
He gained even more attention in 1986 as one of the stars of the classic coming-of-age
drama Stand by Me, and starred in the horror film The Curse a year later.
Then, Star Trek came along.
Wheaton is also a famous social media user who shares plenty of throwback Thursday posts
on Instagram, many of which often reflect on his past as a child star.
In early 2020, he posted a photo of himself from the very first season of Star Trek: The
Next Generation as a tribute to his on-set teacher during the series.
Now that's just sweet.
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