Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik
Bialik at the 2011 Gracie Awards
Born	Mayim Hoya Bialik (1975-12-12) December 12, 1975 San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1986–present
Spouse(s)	Michael Stone (2003-present; 2 children)
Website	mayimbialik.net

Mayim Hoya Bialik, PhD (/ˈmaɪəm biˈɑːlk/; born December 12, 1975) is an American actress famous for her TV roles as Blossom Russo on NBC's Blossom and as Amy Farrah Fowler Ph.D. on CBS's The Big Bang Theory.

Early life

Bialik was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Barry Bialik and Beverly Winkelman. Her grandparents emigrated in the late 1930s from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Bialik was raised in Reform Judaism. Her given name means "water" in Hebrew.

Career

Bialik started her career as a child actress in the late 1980s. Her early roles included the horror film Pumpkinhead (1988), her first acting job, and guest appearances on The Facts of Life and Beauty and the Beast. She appeared in three episodes of MacGyver as Lisa Woodman. She appeared in Beaches (1988), playing Bette Midler's character as a young girl. She also appeared in the video for the song "Liberian Girl" by Michael Jackson.

Bialik at the rehearsal for the 1989 Academy Awards

In 1990 Bialik was tied to two television pilots, Fox's Molloy and NBC's Blossom. Molloy at first produced six episodes for a tryout run, followed by the shooting of the pilot special for Blossom. The latter actually aired two weeks before Bialik's Fox series and ultimately garnered higher ratings than it. When Molloy folded after its six episodes, Blossom was pursued as a regular series, airing until 1995.

Between 1995 and 2005 Bialik mostly did voice-over work for cartoons, such as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and Recess.

She appeared in the feature film Kalamazoo? (2005) and appeared in three episodes of the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm as Jodi Funkhouser, the lesbian daughter of a friend of Larry David. Bialik also made guest appearances as a fictionalized version of herself in the series Fat Actress and made a guest appearance as a Hasidic Jew in an episode of Saving Grace. She had a recurring role as the high school guidance counselor in ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She also had an appearance on the Fox TV show 'Til Death in which she has a reunion of sorts with two of her Blossom costars- Jenna von Oÿ – who played Blossom’s quirky best friend Six – and Michael Stoyanov – who played Blossom’s older brother Anthony.

In 2010 she joined the cast of The Big Bang Theory as Amy Farrah Fowler. Her first appearance was in the finale of the third season of the show, where she was cast as a potential girlfriend for the character Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons). In the fourth season of the show, she started out as a recurring character playing Sheldon's "friend that's a girl, but not a girlfriend." Beginning with episode 8 of the 4th season, she became part of the main cast. Bialik's character is a neurobiologist, which corresponds to Bialik's real-life educational pursuits, as described below.

Prior to her joining the cast in the episode "The Bat Jar Conjecture," Raj suggests recruiting the real-life Bialik to their Physics Bowl team, saying "You know who’s apparently very smart, is the girl who played TV’s Blossom. She got a PhD in neuroscience or something."

On March 6, 2012, her book, "Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way" was released.

Personal life

Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel's national poet, was Mayim Bialik's great-great-grandfather's uncle.

Bialik attended Walter Reed Junior High School in North Hollywood, CA, located in the San Fernando Valley. At the end of Blossom, she chose to attend UCLA, although she also had been accepted to both Harvard and Yale. She stated that she wanted to stay close to her parents and did not want to move to the East Coast. She earned a bachelor's degree in 2000 in neuroscience, Hebrew, and Jewish studies, and went on to the PhD program in neuroscience.

She took a break from studies in 2005 to return to acting. Bialik completed her PhD in 2008. Her dissertation was an investigation of Prader-Willi syndrome.

A 2002 interview stated that Bialik is now involved in Conservadox Judaism. She has appeared in several YouTube cameos as Blossom and Amy Farrah Fowler asking questions about Jewish beliefs. The videos are produced by Allison Josephs, Bialik's Judaism study partner, whom she met with the help of Partners in Torah.

She married Michael Stone on August 31, 2003, in a Victorian-themed ceremony with traditional Jewish customs (Bialik's husband, born a Latter Day Saint, converted to Judaism; several years later, Bialik's mother-in-law converted to Judaism as well). The couple have two sons together: Miles Roosevelt Bialik Stone, born October 10, 2005, and Frederick Heschel Bialik Stone, born August 15, 2008. She is a celebrity spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network.

She is a vegan.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role
1988	Beaches	Young Cecilia 'CC' Carol Bloom
	Pumpkinhead	Wallace kid
2005	Kalamazoo?	Maggie Goldman
2011	The Chicago 8	Nancy Kurshan
2012	Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire	Maria (Voice)

Television - Live Action
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Beauty and the Beast	Ellie	Episode: "No Way Down"
1988	The Facts of Life	Jennifer Cole	Episodes: "The Beginning of the Beginning", "The Beginning of the End"
1988–1989	Webster	Frieda	eight episodes
1989–1990	Empty Nest	Laurie Kincaid	Episodes: "The R.N. Who Came to Dinner", "Harry Knows Best"
	MacGyver	Lisa Woodman	Episodes: "Cease Fire", "Twenty Questions", "Hearts of Steel"
1990	Doogie Howser, M.D.	Candace	Episode: "Ask Dr. Doogie"
	Molloy	Molloy Martin	Episodes: "Pilot", "Surprise"
	Murphy Brown	Natalie	Episode: "I Want My FYI"
1990–1995	Blossom	Blossom Russo	114 episodes
1991	Sea World's Mother Earth Celebration (on Nickelodeon)	Herself	Played a mall-a-holic who knows little about animals and nature until she hears about friends' experiences. Her neighborhood mysteriously "flies off" to Sea World where she's able to use her new knowledge and learn more facts.
1993	The Hidden Room	Jillie	Episode: "Jillie"
1994	Don't Drink the Water	Susan Hollander	Woody Allen's TV remake
1994–1995	The John Larroquette Show	Rachel	Episodes: "The Book of Rachel", "Rachel and Ton", "Rachel Redux"
1998	Welcome to Paradox	Rita	Episode: "Alien Jane"
2005	Fat Actress	Herself	Episodes: "The Koi Effect", "Holy Lesbo Batman"
	7th Heaven	Cathy	Episode: "Dick"
2005, 2007	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Jodi Funkhauser	Episodes: "The Bowtie", "The TiVo Guy", "The Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial"
2009	Saving Grace	Esther	Episode: "Mooooooooo"
	What Not To Wear	Herself	Clinton Kelly nominated her for the show, having been a fan of hers since Blossom
	Bones	Genie Gormon	Episode: "The Cinderella in the Cardboard"
2010	The Secret Life of the American Teenager	Dr. Wilameena Bink	Episodes: "You Don’t Know What You’ve Got...", "Just Say Me", "Let's Try That Again", "The Rhythm of Life"
	'Til Death	Herself	Episodes: "The Break-Up", "Merit Play", "Baby Steps"
2010-Present	The Big Bang Theory	Amy Farrah Fowler	Introduced in season 3 finale, guest until episode 5 of season 4, main cast starring role since episode 8 of season 4

Television - voice
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	The Kingdom Chums: Original Top Ten	Petey
1995, 1996	The Adventures of Hyperman	Brittany Bright	Episodes: #1.1 and "Oceans a Leavin'"
1996	The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest	Lucy	Episode: "The Alchemist"
		Julia/French Woman	Episode: "Assault on Questworld:
1996, 1999	Hey Arnold!	Maria	Episodes: "6th Grade Girls/The Baseball", "Dinner for Four/Phoebe Skips"
1997	Johnny Bravo	Tour Guide	Episode: "Going Batty/Berry the Butler/Red Faced in the White House"
	Extreme Ghostbusters	Girl in Future	Episode: "Ghost Apocalyptic Future"
1997, 1998, 2000	Recess	Kirsten Kurst	Episodes: "The Break-In", "The Girl Was Trouble", "The Ratings Game"
2003	X2: Wolverine's Revenge	Bush Pilot, May Deuce	video game
2003, 2004	Kim Possible	Justine Flanner	Episodes: "The Secret Files", "Partners"
2005	Katbot	Paula	never aired

External links

• Mayim Bialik's official website
• Mayim Bialik at IMDb
• Mayim Bialik at AllMovie
• UCLA Alumni Story for Mayim Bialik ’00, PhD.’07
• Hypothalamic regulation in relation to maladaptive, obsessive-compulsive, affiliative, and satiety behaviors in Prader-Willi syndrome