Melissa Rauch

Melissa Rauch is an actress and comedian best known for playing Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory. Rauch was born and raised in Marlboro Township, New Jersey, where she attended Marlboro High School. She went on to graduate from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City with a bachelor’s degree in acting.

Rauch began performing stand-up comedy in New York before landing small roles on television. She gained early attention with her one-woman show The Miss Education of Jenna Bush and made early appearances in Delirious (2006) and Kath & Kim. Her big break came in 2009 when she joined the cast of The Big Bang Theory in its third season. Her performance as Bernadette earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble cast and multiple nominations over the show’s run.

In addition to The Big Bang Theory, Rauch has appeared in True Blood, The Office, The Bronze (2015), which she cowrote, and The Laundromat. She returned to network TV in 2023 as the lead and executive producer of NBC’s Night Court reboot, playing Judge Abby Stone. She has also done extensive voice work for shows such as Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Sofia the First and Robot Chicken.

Melissa married writer and producer Winston Rauch in 2007. The couple share daughter Sadie (born in 2017) and son Brooks (born in 2020).