Which comedy legend's crotch jokes inspired Melissa Rauch's career? Keep watching to
discover how this talented performer landed her big break as Bernadette on "The Big Bang Theory."
When Melissa Rauch made her first appearance as Howard's blind date Bernadette 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 their meddling mothers. A spark was kindled, and a recurring role was born.
Shocked viewers realized the graceless 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, telling Backstage Magazine,
"I was so grateful when 'Big Bang' happened. [I] was supposed to be a one-time guest star!"
Landing a hit series was a major accomplishment for the up-and-coming actress,
but it didn't happen overnight. Rauch was just a kid when she got hooked on comedy.
That's when she started working toward her chosen career and began developing
the character that would one day get her a big break as Bernadette.
"Hey, it's a good thing you did that. You would have regretted it your whole life.
Your whole life. Feels good, don't it? Feels good."
From her first awkward car ride with Howard, 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, which she modeled after her mother. Rauch told Insider,
"My mother sounds very similar to Bernadette. 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, telling RogerEbert.com,
"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."
In one instance, Rauch memorized a set from a Whoopi Goldberg HBO special that had a lot of
F-bombs. The teacher ended up calling Rauch's mom about how Rauch went from
being shy and barely talking one minute to using very inappropriate language the next.
"Whoopi Goldberg had this character where she was like pointing at her
crotch and being like 'ovuh here!’''
As 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 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, telling Inside Jersey,
"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. I also had a terrific theater
teacher at Marlboro High School who taught me a great deal and was very encouraging."
Without that support, she might not have taken the next steps toward her future success.
After graduating high school, Rauch went to Marymount Manhattan College to study acting.
She encountered great teachers there and one, in particular, helped her with voice work,
so her New Jersey accent wouldn't be quite so strong. Others taught
her how to build on her natural ability to create characters.
But Rauch knew she had to do even more to grow as a performer. By that point,
she'd realized that comedians write their own material,
so she began performing her stand-up sets in New York City clubs, telling RogerEbert.com,
"I did stand-up for about ten 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. I would love to eventually go back to it.
I grew up being such a huge fan of comedy and stand-up."
"The fact that I know I have a job to come back to after this summer
is such a dream come true. I spent years waiting tables."
As if she wasn't working hard enough, Rauch also started writing with college friend
Winston Beigel who she met freshman year. Beigel came to watch her set and
they decided to write some sketches together because they had a very
similar sensibility and their favorite thing to do was make each other laugh.
But even with all that training and effort,
her professional career seemed stuck in neutral after she'd graduated, telling Inside Jersey,
"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. And, of course, I was really green,
too. I'd go out for parts in cargo pants and a jean jacket, without any makeup."
Rauch did land some gigs and she was excited to be part of the VH1 series "Best Week Ever."
But she needed her big break. Rauch already knew how to write a stand-up set, so she started
writing solo shows wherever she could, from burger joints to laundromats, telling Inside Jersey,
"Just knowing I could do that at night made it easier waiting tables all day."
She was still writing with Beigel who she was dating and would soon marry when they got the idea
to write a one-woman show together. It started as a not-very-funny autobiographical story about
trying to make it after college. But then they were inspired by Jenna Bush Hager, who was around
Rauch's age and about to start teaching at a charter school, Rauch told Interview Magazine,
"So we decided to combine the two: the one-woman show that we were writing for me with this idea
of making it through Jenna Bush's voice, and exploring the Bush presidency through her eyes. We
called it 'The Miseducation of Jenna Bush,' and it was a way to do this coming-of-age story, a young
woman coming into her adulthood, while also using the Bush presidency for some comedic exploration."
The show was a hit. It earned awards at comedy festivals, and Rauch's performance caught the
eye of an agent. The time seemed right to move to L.A. Even then, though, Rauch had to hit
rock bottom before she could finally rise to the top of her game, telling Entertainment Tonight,
"I was at the unemployment office the day before I got the audition
for ["The Big Bang Theory"]. I was doing a lot of
driving around crying in my car. [I] was just in that out-of-work actor grind."
Thankfully, Rauch nailed the audition and wound up with much more than a guest spot.
After a lifetime of dreaming and working, she'd secured her spot in Hollywood.
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