Mayim Hoya Bialik is an American actor who was born in San Diego, California, on December 12, 1975. She grew up in Los Angeles and attended both public and religious schools. She was born to first-generation Jewish-American parents who are documentary filmmakers and teachers.
She began her acting career as a child when she played a younger Better Midler’s character in a 1998 film Beaches. She then went on to feature in her own television show Blossom. It ran from 1990 to 1995.
Following this, she pursued a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and subsequently returned to acting. Coincidentally she played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2010 to 2019).
Apart from this, she is also the spokesperson for Texas Instruments. She has even written two books – Beyond the Sling and Mayim’s Vegan Table.
Mayim is reportedly a board member of several Jewish philanthropic organisations.
In her first acting job in the late 1980s, she starred in the horror film Pumpkinhead. She followed it up by guest-appearing in MacGyver, The Facts of Life and Webster. After her Bette Midler run, she also appeared in a music video for the song “Liberian Girl” by Michael Jackson.
However, according to critics, her breakout role came in the form of ‘Blossom’. Mayim enjoyed the show’s success from 1990 to 1995 as the TV series got a high rating. The character that Mayim played – ‘Blossom’ – was known as “the quirky girl with the signature flower hat.”
After ‘Blosson’, she engaged in some voice-over work and guest starred on several television shows, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fat Actress, Saving Grace and What Not To Wear.
She got back on the acting express with ‘The Big Bang Theory’ in 2010. She played the character of neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Jim Parsons’ Sheldon Cooper.
Her vocation in the sitcom mirrored Mayim’s real-life educational interests. She even received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for ‘The Big Bang Theory’.
After ‘Blossom’ she attended the University of California, Los Angeles, despite getting the opportunity to get herself admitted to both Harvard and Yale. She got her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, Hebrew and Jewish studies in 2000, and then went on to the university’s Ph.D. program in neuroscience, which she completed in 2007.