How The Big Bang Theory Changed Melissa Rauch Forever
The introduction of a significant other on a sitcom doesn't always go over well. Just look at Lauren Tom, who had a tough time when she joined the cast of "Friends" as Ross Geller's (David Schwimmer) surprise girlfriend — Tom told Today that she was booed by live audiences because they wanted Ross to be with Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), and her character was getting in the way.
Yet, sometimes, such an introduction works extremely well. This was the case when Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) began dating Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) on "The Big Bang Theory." Unlike most other women, Bernadette appreciates his quirks, thinks he's attractive, and holds her own against his mother. She helps Howard transition from creepy ladies' man to doting husband and father. They're the perfect match, and, unlike Tom, Rauch did not get booed on set.
Becoming such an integral part of "The Big Bang Theory" changed Rauch's life forever. Not only did the gig give her financial stability, but it also opened a lot of doors for her in the entertainment industry, the world of philanthropy, and beyond. Join us as we recount the journey she's been on since securing the role that she will always be remembered for.
The Big Bang Theory was her big break in Hollywood
Prior to landing the role of the sweet-but-fiery Bernadette on "The Big Bang Theory," Melissa Rauch was landing roles on a semi-regular basis, but they were all short-lived. She played a minor part in the 2006 Steve Buscemi film "Delirious," and she appeared in the short-lived series "12 Miles of Bad Road" and "Kath & Kim." She told Gold Derby that, at the time of her "The Big Bang Theory" audition, she was making a living by guest-starring on as many shows as possible. Naturally, she figured this latest gig would be the same.
"I was in between some failed pilots and shows that didn't get picked up, and so I was just excited to have a job for the week," she said. "And when you're a guest star, you kind of feel like you're a foreign exchange student coming into an environment, and everyone was so welcoming from the moment I sat down at the table for the table read." Rauch assumed that her appearance in Season 3, Episode 5 ("The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary") would be like her past jobs in that she would portray a one-time character and then move on to the next thing. However, she couldn't have been more wrong: "The Big Bang Theory" served as a ticket out of her stressful guest-star cycle.
Landing her role put an end to her money worries
Melissa Rauch knows firsthand how difficult it is to make a stable living as a guest star. In fact, the week of her "The Big Bang Theory" audition, she was at the unemployment office collecting her check. "I had to go to this seminar about how to get a job," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "It was awful. It was a dark week!" Thankfully, she didn't have to worry about her finances for much longer. As the relationship between Bernadette and Howard grew, Rauch was promoted from guest star to series regular. She would go on to appear in 209 episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," which ran for 279 episodes in total.
Rauch became part of the furniture on the show, yet she and fellow Season 3 addition Mayim Bialik weren't making nearly as much as the original five cast members. While Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar were raking in $1 million an episode, Rauch and Bialik were earning $200,000. When it came time to renegotiate contracts for the final two seasons, Parsons and the others agreed to decrease their per-episode pay by $100,000, allowing Rauch and Bialik to get $450,000 an episode. Of course, this still didn't amount to equal pay, but it was more than enough for Rauch to live comfortably.
She's still associated with Bernadette's high-pitched voice
On "The Big Bang Theory," the squeaky voice that Melissa Rauch uses for Bernadette is a major element of the character. In fact, after hearing that voice come out of Rauch for an entire decade, many people believe the actor speaks that way in real life. However, this isn't the case. In making Bernadette her own, Rauch drew inspiration from her mom. "Bernadette's voice is very similar to my mother's, except without the Jersey accent. My mother, it's not quite that high, but it's in that tone and that range," Rauch said on "The Rubin Report."
She often gets recognized by fans while out and about, but when she speaks to them using her normal, lower register, they question whether or not it's actually her. She said: "They'll hear my voice and they'll be like, 'Oh, that's not you.'" Rauch's real voice also threw "Night Court" audiences for a loop, with many taking to social media to express their shock that the actor doesn't actually sound like her "The Big Bang Theory" character. On X, formerly known as Twitter, @GabeReal909 posted, "I'm so used to Melissa Rauch's high pitched Bernadette voice."
The Big Bang Theory opened doors to other projects
After years of struggling to land steady work in Hollywood, "The Big Bang Theory" and her portrayal of Bernadette helped Melissa Rauch make a name for herself in the industry. Even when the show came to a bittersweet end in 2019, Rauch didn't have to wait long to get involved with another successful project.
In NBC's "Night Court," a reboot of the hit sitcom from the '80s and early '90s, Rauch portrays Abby Stone, daughter of the late Harry Stone (Harry Anderson). Abby is following in his footsteps as the night shift judge of an arraignment court in Manhattan. Rauch also serves as an executive producer. Only four episodes into its inaugural season, "Night Court," which had garnered 25.7 million viewers by that point, was renewed by the network for a second season.
Rauch told Collider of the show's early success, "Oh, my goodness, I'm endlessly grateful. It feels very surreal. I'm always cautiously optimistic, but more on the cautious side. After years of projects fizzling out or just never going anywhere, I was like, 'Well, let's see what happens.' I was really proud of everything that we were doing and I was personally really excited about it, but it just feels a bit like a dream come true."
Her character started a conversation about motherhood
During the early days of Howard and Bernadette's relationship on "The Big Bang Theory," Bernadette is extremely vocal about the fact that she does not want children. She takes her career in microbiology very seriously, and she fears that a baby would prevent her from achieving her personal goals (while simultaneously ruining her body and keeping her up all night). However, when she becomes pregnant with their child, Bernadette has a different, more positive mindset about the whole thing. In fact, it's Howard who freaks out about the situation.
For Melissa Rauch, it was an honor to showcase a journey into motherhood that's not often seen on screen, something she remains proud of to this day. Through Bernadette, Rauch lets women know that it's okay to favor career ambitions over having a baby. She also lets them know that it's okay for them to change their mind. "I love that it just opened up the conversation because [just] as every human being is different, every mom is different," she told Cafe Mom (via CinemaBlend). "There's no one-size-fits-all motherhood vibe we all feel."
Playing Bernadette was a test run for real-life milestones
Whether it's starting a new job or becoming a parent, most people dive headfirst into such milestones trying their best and learning as they go. Luckily, Melissa Rauch was able to give the double duty of motherhood and maintaining a career a trial run through Bernadette. "She became a mother before me. She experienced work-life balance before I did, that push and pull," Rauch told Forbes. "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. 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."
This dress rehearsal was especially needed when Rauch welcomed her second child at the hospital without her husband, writer and producer Winston Rauch. It was May 2020 and, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no one besides the mother and medical staff were allowed in the room. However, just as Bernadette gets herself into a strong, positive mindset regarding her new baby, Rauch did the same. "My perineum hurts the same excruciating amount that it did after my last birth," she wrote in a Glamour op-ed. "So the good news is that some things about birthing are exactly the same, pandemic or not."
Rauch is using her platform to promote good causes
Since becoming a series regular on "The Big Bang Theory," Melissa Rauch has established a strong platform, including 2.4 million followers on Instagram. She's using that massive following for good by opening and running Oscar's Kids, a charity to support the research of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. This is a rare form of pediatric cancer that impacts everything from breathing to the ability to speak and eat.
It all started when Rauch received an Instagram message from the mother of Oscar Keogh, a boy from Ireland with DIPG who was a massive fan of the actress. Rauch befriended the family and was heartbroken when Keogh passed away at only 5 years old. She wanted to do something and decided to launch the U.S. chapter of Oscar's Kids (his family runs the Ireland-based chapter).
"As far as my background, and not having experience running a charity, the only thing I can authentically say is that I had the passion for becoming an advocate for this cause based on one of the most inspirational friendships in my life with Oscar Keogh's family," Rauch told Forbes. "I feel like with having the platform that I do, and being so grateful to have that, it was paramount to me that I do something good with that and try and make a difference."
She formed lasting friendships with her co-stars
When "The Big Bang Theory" came to an end after 12 memorable seasons, it was an emotional time for the show's cast members. While this was certainly true for Melissa Rauch, she found solace in the fact that she had made meaningful connections that would survive beyond the sitcom. "I met so many wonderful people here that will be my friends for life," she told Entertainment Tonight during the series wrap party. "It's hard making friends in a new town, and I was still building my community of people, and this really was just a group of people that I fell in love with instantly."
Rauch was particularly excited about the friendship she formed with Mayim Bialik, who she was a massive fan of from her show "Blossom." In fact, Rauch revealed on the podcast "Mayim Bialik's Breakdown" that, as a child, she had a Blossom hat and reenacted the show's opening with her best friend. Therefore, when she found herself sitting next to Bialik at a "The Big Bang Theory" table read, she wondered if she should reveal her fangirl status or play it cool for the time being. Rauch said, "I was like, 'Do I bring it up immediately? Or do I wait so that she doesn't think I'm too thirsty?'"
She gets to work alongside her husband
Even before they were a couple, Melissa Rauch and her husband Winston Rauch worked together creatively. It all started in college during their freshman year, when they bonded over comedy and penned some sketches. However, aside from the play "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush," they struggled to get their work produced. Yet, as Melissa honed her comedic chops on "The Big Bang Theory" and her platform grew, she and Winston (who got married in 2007, with Winston — born with the surname Beigel — taking his wife's name) were able to bring more of their projects to life.
For example, in 2015, their comedy film "The Bronze" became a reality. In addition to co-writing it with Winston, Melissa stars in the movie as Hope Ann Greggory, a former gymnastics success who begrudgingly agrees to train an up-and-coming competitor. Melissa told RogerEbert.com, "The experience of actually getting something produced and being on set together was so exciting." More recently, the Rauches have been working together on the small screen, with both of them serving as executive producers on the NBC reboot of "Night Court."
She's come a long way since her days as a would-be comic in New York City
Early on in her career, while living in New York City, Melissa Rauch tried to make it as a comedian. However, this was easier said than done. She explained on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" how aspiring standups have to pay their dues in the Big Apple, which for her involved standing in Times Square and handing out fliers to promote comedy shows.
"One of the moments that sort of was a bit of a push to move to L.A. was, I was standing outside a Broadway show, and I was trying to get people to come to the late show, and it was the middle of February," recalled Rauch. "And I was like, 'Come see comedy, come see comedy,' and this little girl just looked at me and looked at her mother and was like, 'Mommy, that's so sad.'"
Though she didn't break through as a standup comedian, "The Big Bang Theory" helped Rauch make it as a comedic actor, with many fans of the show hailing her as one of the funniest cast members. On Reddit, u/beloved93 said, "Her sassy rude character was hilarious throughout the show yet she still had her sweet moments with her friends/husband." Meanwhile, u/SimonKepp said, "Love her. Melissa Rauch is probably the most talented comedy actor on the show."
She's become aware of the dangers of social media
With each passing year, social media is becoming more prevalent in society, especially among children and teens. Due to the release of dopamine in the brain, it can become addictive for users. According to Jefferson Health, "Adolescence is the second biggest period of brain development and growth and, because of that, social media can have a big impact on the adolescent brain." In May 2023, Melissa Rauch became a founding advisor of Get Media Savvy, a nonprofit launched by Julie Scelfo and Dr. Heidi J. Boisvert. Its mission is to promote healthy technology use in young people.
In an Instagram post that outlined the goals of the nonprofit, Rauch was candid about how nervous she is about social media's impact on the mental health of adolescents. She thanked Scelfo and Boisvert for not only taking a major step to address the ever-growing issue, but also letting her be a part of the solution. "Their goal for Get Media Savvy is to give people the tools to fight media chaos and defend humanity — a framework that empowers everyone to make healthy media choices for kids," the actor said.
Rauch will always have fond memories of her time on The Big Bang Theory
As Melissa Rauch moves forward in her career and accomplishes new feats, she'll always look back at her time on "The Big Bang Theory" with fondness. After all, the series catapulted her into the spotlight and led to her making lifelong friends. Some of her favorite moments include Bernadette getting snippy with the child audience at Howard's magic show, the gang pairing off for the scavenger hunt planned by Raj, and Penny discovering Bernadette's fight to become Miss California Quiznos. The latter episode turned out to be "by far one of the most fun things I've ever done — especially since I'm from Jersey, so having any excuse to pouf my hair out to those extreme heights was just a joy," she told Today.
However, the thing she'll hold onto the strongest is the evolution of Bernadette. In the same interview, Rauch went on to explain how it was "cool to follow that journey from her not knowing if she even wanted kids to not knowing if she'd be a good mom to the struggle of when she finally did become a mom — that moment of, like, 'What is going on?' And then just the very relatable struggle of having to enter back into the workplace after being home and leaving her kids." As an actor, she really enjoyed the "raw emotion" that this part of Bernadette's arc required, and she turned in some of her strongest performances around this time.