Melissa Rauch


Melissa Ivy Rauch is an American actress. She is known for playing Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2013.

Early life

Rauch was born to Susan and David Rauch, a Jewish family living in Marlboro Township, New Jersey. She has a brother, Ben. She developed an interest in acting while attending Marlboro High School. Her Bat Mitzvah had a “Melissa’s Comedy Club” theme. Rauch graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City in 2002.

Career

Some of Rauch's early work was as a regular contributor to VH1's Best Week Ever television show.
In 2009, Rauch began playing the recurring role of Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, a co-worker of Penny's at The Cheesecake Factory who began to date Howard Wolowitz, in the third season of TV's The Big Bang Theory. The following season her character became Howard's fiancée and Rauch was promoted to a series regular. The characters married in the season five finale. In December 2011, Rauch and fellow cast members of The Big Bang Theory received the first of four nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Other acting credits include True Blood, The Office, the American remake of the Australian TV series Kath & Kim, Wright v Wrong, and the film I Love You, Man.
Rauch is also part of the cast of the comedic stage show The Realest Real Housewives with Casey Wilson, June Diane Raphael, Jessica St. Clair and Danielle Schneider. The show began running at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in 2011.
Rauch co-wrote and co-produced the film The Bronze, in which she starred as Hope Annabelle Greggory, a bronze medal-winning gymnast clinging to her glory days of 12 years earlier. It opened the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Variety said, "Rauch, who co-wrote the screenplay with her husband Winston, has never carried a film before. But she delivers the best breakthrough comedic performance by an actress since Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids." Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film in September 2015.
In 2017, Rauch voiced Harley Quinn in the animated film Batman and Harley Quinn and she voiced Light Thief in "Light Riders" from Blaze and the Monster Machines.

Personal life

Rauch is married to writer Winston Rauch, who collaborated with her on The Miss Education of Jenna Bush and other projects. Rauch announced that she was pregnant on July 11, 2017, and disclosed that she had a miscarriage previously. On December 4, 2017 Rauch announced on Instagram that she had given birth to a girl named Sadie. On May 4, 2020, Rauch announced the birth of their son, Brooks.
Rauch modeled the voice of Bernadette after her parents: the "sweet, high-pitched purr" is modeled after her mother, while the "eerie, haranguing imitation" of Mrs. Wolowitz is modeled after her father. Both are "very different" from Rauch's real voice.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
200712 Miles of Bad RoadBethany3 episodes:
"The Dirty White Girl"
"Collateral Verbiage"
"Moonshadow"
2008–2009Kath & KimTinaSeason 1
2009–2019The Big Bang TheoryBernadette Rostenkowski-WolowitzSeason 3
Season 4–12
2010The OfficeCathy Duke1 episode "The Delivery"
2010True BloodSummerSeason 3
2010Wright vs. WrongDaisy CakeTV movie
2014Jake and the Never Land PiratesFirst-Mate Mollie 1 episode
"Smee-erella"
2014Teenage Fairytale DropoutsMiss Macabre1 episode
"Something Wicked This Way Substitutes"
2014The Hot Housewives of OrlandoCalliope1 episode
2015Sofia the FirstFairy Tizzy 2 episodes
2015Scooby-Doo! and the Beach BeastieKiki TV Movie
2017Star vs. the Forces of EvilBaby 1 episode
2017'Marvel's Ant-Man'The Wasp 2 episodes
2017Blaze and the Monster MachinesLight Thief 1 episode
2019Black MondayShira 1 episode
2019Robot ChickenBetty Spaghetty, The Nun, Poopsie Unicorn 1 episode