Penny
Kaley Cuoco as Penny
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Kaley Cuoco
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Waitress/aspiring actress
Relatives	Bob (father), unnamed sister and brother
Nationality	American

Penny is a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by American actress Kaley Cuoco.

Penny is the main female character on the show. She is Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) neighbor across the hallway, and the main love interest of Leonard. Penny's looks and outgoing personality contrast with the rest of the main male characters, who are all scientists and geeks.

Personality

Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Penny is a waitress at the local Cheesecake Factory with aspirations of becoming an actress.^[1] She is a Sagittarius, meaning she was born between November 22 and December 21.^[2]

In contrast to the rest of the group (a main source of humor), Penny is not particularly intellectually gifted or savvy in a specific technical field, but she has great social skills and a lot of knowledge about pop culture.^[3]

Penny is messy and disorganized, but appears to like it that way.^[4] She also has full confidence in horoscopes and often has arguments with Sheldon about their accuracy.^[1][2]

While usually very kind, she can become extremely fierce when provoked such as when Sheldon broke into her apartment to clean,^[4] when she confronted Howard over his flirting,^[5] or when Sheldon "banished" her from their social group.^[6] Leonard has likened her to The Hulk when she gets angry.

Penny is something of a party girl, claiming to have left her car's passenger side wing mirror 'in a parking lot in Hollywood'. She also has a Chinese character tattooed on her right buttock, which means "courage" (Chinese: 勇) according to herself but "soup" (simplified Chinese: 汤; traditional Chinese: 湯) according to Sheldon. She also as a lower back tattoo, as seen in Season 1, Episode 5.

Relationship with Sheldon

For the most part Penny cannot stand Sheldon's nerdy, crazy personality, and the two of them have clashed several times. Jim Parsons described the characters as "polar opposites".^[7]

On one occasion Sheldon tried to improve Penny using chocolate, rewarding her for what he considered to be "correct behavior", as in operant conditioning with lab rats.^[8] As Sheldon observed, Penny will often call someone "sweetie" coupled with a thinly-veiled insult.^[9]

Despite this, at times Penny and Sheldon have shown to be good friends; Penny took care of Sheldon while he was sick^[10] and when he was locked out of his apartment;^[11] Sheldon lent money to Penny when she needed it^[12] and took care of her when she dislocated her shoulder.^[13] During a Christmas episode, Penny gave Sheldon a signed napkin used by Leonard Nimoy. In return, Sheldon gave Penny a long hug to both her and Leonard's surprise.

Geek traits

Although Penny's personality usually contrasts to that of her nerdy friends, in the latter episodes Penny has shown some geekiness too, either intentional or unintentional.

Penny was surprisingly good the first time she played Halo 3, and proved to be better than Sheldon, which greatly aggravated him.^[14]

In one instance, she was critical of the guys' interests in toys and collectibles, but Sheldon confronted her by noting her collection of stuffed bears and childish things (Hello Kitty, Beanie Babies, My Little Pony, etc.).^[15]

After a brief introduction to the game by Sheldon, Penny became addicted to Age of Conan, to the point of ignoring her friends and calling Sheldon at all hours for advice. She finally overcame her gaming addiction when she realized she had agreed to go on a virtual "date" within the game with Howard.^[16]

After Alicia, a new tenant in the building, stole the boys' attention from Penny, Penny became jealous and tried to win over the boys again by making a physicist joke and even referencing Star Trek.^[17]

Name

Like many shows which don't reveal the last name of some characters, Penny's last name is not revealed, though co-creator Bill Prady stated that it eventually will be.^[18]

A reference to what may supposedly be her full first name was made in The Barbarian Sublimation, in which her online nickname to play Age of Conan was Queen Penelope.^[16]

Family

Not a lot is mentioned about Penny's family, other than her father's name being Bob, but on her accounts they seem to be a dysfunctional family.

In an early episode, Penny talked to Raj about her sister's problems with her husband.^[4] In another episode, Penny accompanied the guys to the comic book store to shop for a present for her 13-year-old nephew.^[19]

When Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter who is a neuroscientist and a psychiatrist, chatted with Penny, Penny revealed some of her childhood issues such as being called slugger by her father because he really wanted a son to play baseball with. This conversation affected Penny in such a way, that she became drunk and almost ended up having sex with Leonard.^[20]

In another occasion Penny mentions having a brother on parole, who she says is "kind of a chemist", which would indicate that he most likely ran a narcotics lab or was a drug dealer.^[9]

Work

Penny's main job is as a waitress in the local Cheesecake Factory.

She considers herself a professional actress and constantly goes to castings, but she is not very successful.

When Penny was a child, she built a tractor engine on the farm^[4] and competed in a junior rodeo.^[6]

Relationships

Unlike the rest of the guys, Penny is very outgoing and assertive, and has many romantic relationships over the course of the series.

In the first episode, Penny moved in across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon because of her recent split with her boyfriend, Kurt, after four years. She said she still loved him even though he cheated on her.^[1] Kurt makes further appearances in the show trying to get back with Penny, and is usually confronted by Leonard.^[21][12]

From the beginning, Leonard's infatuation with Penny becomes the major force that drives the series. Howard also shows interest in her, but he is always rejected abruptly due to his overtly-sexual approaches.

In an early episode, Penny described her approach after a failed relationship: she picks up an attractive man and then has meaningless sex over the course of a weekend, then she dumps him.^[22]

In the finale of the first season, Penny broke up with her boyfriend, after the latter posted intimate details about their sex life on his blog. This event gave Leonard the opportunity to ask her out on a first official date.^[23] Although the date was successful, Penny became worried after she lied to Leonard about graduating from community college. Leonard eventually learned the truth about this from Sheldon, but he made matters worse when he tried to encourage Penny to enroll in Pasadena City College. Penny considered his suggestion an insult to her intelligence, and they broke up.^[24]

Some time after, Penny's introduction to Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, caused Penny and Leonard to seek comfort in each other; they nearly had sex, but Leonard spoiled the moment with unintentionally inappropriate comments about Penny's sexual motivations (to be closer to her father, supposedly, which creeped Penny out), and Penny kicked him out of her apartment.^[20]

Afterwards, Penny dated Stuart, from the comic book store, but the dates didn't end well. The first time, Penny and Stuart were interrupted by Sheldon.^[19] In another occasion, when Penny and Stuart were kissing, Penny mistakenly called him "Leonard".^[25]

It was in the second season finale that Penny finally showed strong romantic feelings for Leonard. When she discovered that Leonard and the other guys would be spending three months at the North Pole for a scientific experiment, she became sad and gave him a Snuggie and an unusually long hug, which Leonard described as lasting for "five Mississippis".^[26] In the third season premiere, after the guys returned from the expedition, Penny kissed Leonard right when he arrived at her door. Subsequently, Leonard and Penny finally made love for the first time.^[27] Initially, Leonard and Penny felt uncomfortable with their new relationship, and they agreed to remain only friends. Yet, almost immediately they changed their minds, found renewed sexual urges, and remained a couple.^[28] Their relationship soured, however, when Leonard said "I love you" for the first time, and Penny replied simply with "thank you". This tension, heightened by (possibly fabricated) comments made to Penny by Wil Wheaton about regretting having been in a similar situation, eventually caused Penny and Leonard to break up.^[29] They did remain friends, however, but did sleep together once after breaking up, after Penny got drunk and realized Leonard had ruined her ability date stupid men. This only caused more confusion about the status of the relationship for Leonard.^[28]

Development

In the original, unaired pilot of the series, the conception of the female lead was very different. She was called Katie, and was envisoned as "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior". Sheldon and Leonard would "approach her with honesty, to draw the real, sensitive Katie out".^[18] The role was played by Amanda Walsh.^[30] However, the test audiences reacted to the character negatively, seeing her as too mean. Because of this, the character was changed, and the role was recast.^[18]

See also

• Leonard Hofstadter
• Sheldon Cooper
• Howard Wolowitz
• Rajesh Koothrappali
• Leslie Winkle
• List of characters in The Big Bang Theory
• List of The Big Bang Theory episodes

References