Leonard Hofstadter

Leonard Hofstadter
Johnny Galecki as Dr. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Johnny Galecki
Information
Occupation	Experimental physicist
Title	Doctor
Family	Unnamed father Beverly Hofstadter (mother) Michael Hofstadter (younger brother) Floyd (uncle, deceased) Unnamed sister
Nationality	American

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 from New Jersey who shares an apartment with colleague and best friend Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons). Leonard and Sheldon are named after actor/producer Sheldon Leonard, and Nobel Prize Laureates Robert Hofstadter and Leon Cooper.

Leonard has been described as the straight man of the series. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) 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 2011, Galecki was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy.

Personality

Originally from New Jersey, and a graduate of Princeton University, Leonard works as a Caltech experimental physicist who shares an apartment with colleague Sheldon Cooper in Pasadena, California. He is usually seen wearing his characteristic black-framed glasses, low-cut black Converse All Stars sneakers, neutral-colored sweat jackets, brown trousers, and physics-themed t-shirts.

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 (such as Klingon Boggle), as he does not want her to see him as a geek. While certainly a geek by most definitions, he is less socially awkward than Sheldon (who is unable to grasp social norms), Raj (who is unable to talk to women unless he is under the influence of alcohol), and even Howard (who is often seen as "creepy" when flirting with women).

Leonard can also play the cello. As seen in the season 1 episode "The Hamburger Postulation", he and Leslie Winkle practice their instruments and then leave to have sex.

Despite his attempts to not appear to be a geek, Leonard owns, among other things, Star Wars hygiene products, an expansive Superman comic book collection (and wears Clark Kent-type glasses) 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 Penny was already dating another man.

Having lived with Sheldon for several years, Leonard knows him best, and is obligated to explain Sheldon's behavior, and/or serve 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 the phone number of Sheldon's mother so she would call her son and scold him for his behavior, thus ending the fight.

Leonard's primary health concern is his lactose intolerance; he avoids eating even small amounts of dairy products, including cheese, yogurt, and butter, for fear of passing gas. According to the (unaired) pilot, he cannot process corn either. Leonard also wears glasses because of myopia, and practically 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.

Family

All of the members of Leonard's family are accomplished scientists, except for his brother, who is a tenured law professor at Harvard Law School.

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 is principally responsible for Leonard's difficult childhood. 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 when he was young he built a "hugging machine" 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 sister is a cutting-edge medical researcher working with gibbons to cure diabetes.

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 this middle name and its humorous connotations, and rarely mentions it.

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 (according to him, Floyd was the only family member he really liked). 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 Ph.D from Princeton University. Dr. Hofstadter received a dissertation of the year award for his doctoral paper on experimental particle physics.

Leonard's 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 prove theories but, according to the cynical and egotistical theorist Sheldon, his work is mostly derivative and thus unimportant.

His miscalculations in loading the top secret propellant for Howard's rocket led to the elevator in the apartment building where he lives being out of service for several years and his attempts to disprove the existence of dark matter were made moot by the work of another physicist. Yet, he resolved the latter by helping to solidify proof of the hypothetical matter's existence with a photomultiplier, was invited as keynote speaker to a topical conference by the Institute of Experimental Physics for his successful research on supersolids and has showed diverse knowledge of theoretical physics.

Relationships

Leonard was hopelessly attracted to Penny within seconds of spotting her. 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 wasn't 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 at her whim.

In the second season, Leonard began a stable relationship with Dr. Stephanie Barnett. Although the relationship went well, even earning Sheldon's approval, Leonard felt uncomfortable with Stephanie moving in with him, and the relationship was ended off-screen.

On another occasion, when Leonard's mother was visiting, he and Penny came very close to having sex, but Leonard ruined the moment by talking about their childhood issues with his mother and her father, respectively. 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 finally showed interest in Leonard, but kept her feelings a secret from him.

In the third season premiere, Leonard and Penny finally started a romantic relationship and had sex for the first time. However, the relationship ended after Leonard prematurely told Penny he loved her and she realized she could not yet reciprocate. In order to win a bowling match against Sheldon's team, which included Leonard and Penny, Wil Wheaton picked up on the tension between Penny and Leonard and manipulated her into dumping him to break up the team. Shortly after the breakup, Leonard has a one-night stand with a physicist he admires when she stays with him on a short visit, causing anger and open disgust from Penny. Leonard and Penny later resolve their feelings and their friendship continues.

In the third season finale, after Penny's failed attempts to move on from her relationship with Leonard, she gets drunk and has sex with him. In the morning, Leonard believes that their relationship has resumed, though Penny tells him that having sex with him was a mistake. This causes a strain on their friendship; at the end of the episode, Leonard gets drunk and tries to have sex with her, prompting Penny to kick him out of her apartment.

Leonard also has an affair with Raj's younger sister Priya (apparently every time she comes to town), 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 Penny's father Wyatt comes to town, she pretends she is still with Leonard so as not to disappoint her father. Her father had apparently been extremely glad to learn she was finally dating a man who was not an idiot (according to his mindset). When he discovers the ruse, he begs Leonard not to give up on Penny.

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.

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. More recently, Priya pressures Leonard into telling Penny to leave him alone, which he does, albeit extremely reluctantly. Penny complies, though it is clear that she does not want Leonard out of her life. Penny eventually figures out how to stay in Leonard's life: by buddying up to Priya, which actually works.

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 (including a failed attempt at cybersex) with Priya continuing to treat Leonard like a submissive partner. Despite being the most eager to have sex, Leonard proves here he is extremely 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 on Skype, but he is shocked to learn that Priya has also cheated on him, sleeping with her ex-boyfriend. In the next episode, Leonard tells Sheldon that he is single, implying that he and Priya have broken up.

Penny is still single and dating, though when drunk, 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 doesn't have to pay for everything or do whatever Penny wants to make Penny like him and have sex with. 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".

See also

• List of The Big Bang Theory episodes