Melissa Rauch

Melissa Ivy Rauch (born June 23, 1980)[1] 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.

Melissa Rauch
Rauch in 2013
Born
Melissa Ivy Rauch

(1980-06-23) June 23, 1980
Marlboro Township, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma materMarymount Manhattan College
OccupationActress
Years active2006–present
Known forThe Big Bang Theory (2009–2019)
Spouse(s)
Winston Rauch
(
m. 2007)
Children2

Early life

Rauch was born to Susan and David Rauch,[2][1] a Jewish[3][4] family living in Marlboro Township, New Jersey. She has a brother, Ben.[1] She developed an interest in acting while attending Marlboro High School.[5] Her Bat Mitzvah had a “Melissa’s Comedy Club” theme.[6] Rauch graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City in 2002.[7]

Career

Some of Rauch's early work was as a regular contributor to VH1's Best Week Ever television show.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10][11][12][13]

Other acting credits include True Blood (on which she had a recurring role in 2010 as Summer, a girl who likes Hoyt), 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.[14]

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.[15] 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."[15] Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film in September 2015.[16]

In 2017, Rauch voiced Harley Quinn in the animated film Batman and Harley Quinn[17] and she voiced Light Thief in "Light Riders" from Blaze and the Monster Machines.

Personal life

Rauch is married to writer Winston Rauch (né Beigel), who collaborated with her on The Miss Education of Jenna Bush and other projects.[18][19][20][21] Rauch announced that she was pregnant on July 11, 2017, and disclosed that she had a miscarriage previously.[22] On December 4, 2017 Rauch announced on Instagram that she had given birth to a girl named Sadie.[23] On May 4, 2020, Rauch announced the birth of their son, Brooks.[24][25]

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.[20] Both are "very different" from Rauch's real voice.[26]

Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
2006 Delirious Megan
2009 I Love You, Man Woman Jogger Yelling at Sidney
2009 The Condom Killer Audra Short
2013 In Lieu of Flowers Carrie
2014 Are You Here Marie
2015 The Bronze Hope Annabelle Greggory Also writer
2016 Ice Age: Collision Course Francine (voice)
2016 Flock of Dudes Jamie
2017 Batman and Harley Quinn Harley Quinn / Dr. Harleen Quinzel [17]
2019 Ode to Joy Bethany
2019 The Laundromat Melanie
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2007 12 Miles of Bad Road Bethany 3 episodes:
"The Dirty White Girl" (season 1: episode 2)
"Collateral Verbiage" (season 1: episode 4)
"Moonshadow" (season 1: episode 6)
2008–2009 Kath & Kim Tina Season 1 (recurring; 6 episodes)
2009–2019 The Big Bang Theory Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz Season 3 (recurring; 5 episodes)
Season 4–12 (series regular)
2010 The Office Cathy Duke 1 episode "The Delivery"
2010 True Blood Summer Season 3 (recurring; 6 episodes)
2010 Wright vs. Wrong Daisy Cake TV movie
2014 Jake and the Never Land Pirates First-Mate Mollie (voice) 1 episode
"Smee-erella"
2014 Teenage Fairytale Dropouts[27] Miss Macabre 1 episode
"Something Wicked This Way Substitutes"
2014 The Hot Housewives of Orlando Calliope 1 episode
2015 Sofia the First Fairy Tizzy (voice) 2 episodes[28]
2015 Scooby-Doo! and the Beach Beastie Kiki (voice) TV Movie
2017 Star vs. the Forces of Evil Baby (voice) 1 episode
2017 Marvel's Ant-Man The Wasp (voice) 2 episodes
2017 Blaze and the Monster Machines Light Thief (voice) 1 episode
2019 Black Monday Shira (voice) 1 episode
2019 Robot Chicken Betty Spaghetty, The Nun, Poopsie Unicorn (voice) 1 episode
gollark: Much nicer than ineffable shell scripts.
gollark: Well, yes, although it has its good parts, like unit files.
gollark: My server's time is about 800ms more accurate now.
gollark: Wow, systemd-timesyncd is awful and it was a good decision to switch to chrony.
gollark: Yes, you don't need to specify anything I think.

References
  1. "Melissa Rauch: Biography". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  2. "Winston Beigel". Broadwayworld.com. August 14, 2005. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2015. [Photo caption] Melissa Rauch with parents Susan & David Rauch, brother Ben Rauch, and boyfriend Winston Beigel at The Miss Education of Jenna Bush
  3. Deerwester, Jayme (November 17, 2011). "Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch Five Questions". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  4. Bloom, Nate (January 26, 2012). "Jewish Stars 1/27". Cleveland Jewish News.
  5. Considine, Bob (May 17, 2011). "Take Five With Melissa Rauch". The Star-Ledger. Newark. Retrieved February 4, 2015. I also had a terrific theater teacher at Marlboro High School who taught me a great deal and was very encouraging. There wasn't a ton to do in Marlboro, so for me, it was either hang outside the Wawa or put on a show.
  6. "Mayim Bialik & Melissa Rauch Talk 'The Bronze,' Bat Mitzvahs & Big Bang's Jewish Rivalry". Kveller. March 16, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  7. Mead, Wendy. "Melissa Rauch Biography: Television Actress (1980–)". Biography.com (FYI / A&E Networks). Archived from the original on October 8, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  8. "Profiles in Panelism: Melissa Rauch". Best Week Ever. May 29, 2008.
  9. Riley, Jenelle (November 29, 2012). "'The Big Bang Theory' Cast On Being Part of an Ensemble". Backstage. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  10. "Nominations Announced for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®" (Press release). Screen Actors Guild. December 14, 2011. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  11. "Nominations Announced for the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®" (Press release). Screen Actors Guild. December 12, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  12. "Nominations Announced for the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®" (Press release). Screen Actors Guild. December 13, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  13. Johnson, Zach (December 10, 2014). "SAG Awards 2015: Complete List of Nominations!". E! News. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  14. Trachta, Ali (January 29, 2011). "The Realest Real Housewives at UCB: A Celebration of the Best Show Ever + Paul Scheer". LA Weekly. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  15. Setoodeh, Ramin (January 23, 2015). "5 Reasons The Bronze Could be a Breakout Comedy in 2015". Variety. Archived from the original on November 6, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  16. Pedersen, Erik (September 11, 2015). "Ex-Relativity Pic The Bronze Lands at Sony Pictures Classics". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  17. Trumbore, Dave (August 30, 2017). "'Batman and Harley Quinn' Review: An Insult to Fans of 'Batman: The Animated Series'". Collider.com. Retrieved January 1, 2020. I don’t know if I can blame Melissa Rauch for any of this, but it was not a great introduction for her take on Harley.
  18. Harper, Carol (June 6, 2014). "Melissa Rauch movie 'The Bronze' to shoot June 29 in Amherst". Morning Journal. Lisbon, Ohio. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  19. Hawk, Jason (June 29, 2014). "'Bronze' to film downtown". Oberlin News. Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  20. Getlen, Larry (March 24, 2013). "Screaming success". New York Post. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  21. Silverman, Stephen M. (August 19, 2005). "Jenna Bush Takes Center Stage in New York". People. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  22. Rauch, Melissa. "'Big Bang Theory' Star Melissa Rauch Announces Her Pregnancy and Reflects on Previous Miscarriage". glamour.com. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  23. "Actress Melissa Rauch Welcomes A 'Beautiful Baby Girl' Named Sadie". The Huffington Post.
  24. "The Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch announces birth of her son Brooks". Metro. May 4, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  25. "Big Bang Theory Star Melissa Rauch Welcomes Son Brooks — and Reveals She Gave Birth Alone". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  26. "Melissa Rauch of Big Bang Theory Does S&M-Inspired Photo Shoot for Maxim". The Huffington Post. November 16, 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  27. "Ánima Estudios – Mobile Uploads". facebook.com. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  28. "Second Season of Disney Junior's Hit Series "Sofia the First" Debuts Friday, March 7 on Disney Channel". The Futon Critic (Press release). Disney Channel. February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
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