Bazinga!, Soft Kitty, and an elevator that has been broken for 16 years amount to a series of running gags found on The Big Bang Theory. The popular modern sitcom ran from 2007 to 2019, spanning 279 episodes and featuring a cast of actors who played physicists, biologists, engineers…and Penny. Like other ensemble sitcoms, a typical episode of The Big Bang Theory featured multiple plot points with characters getting into shenanigans, whether together or apart. The characters on the show are stereotypical nerds who play videogames, struggle to talk to women, and know science like the back of their hands. It's like Friends, but if all the characters were Ross.

Throughout 12 years, The Big Bang Theory had a long list of guest stars whether feeding into the trope of nerds obsessing over sci-fi and comics like, with Stan Lee and James Earl Jones, or actors who were regularly seen, like Christine Baranski as Mrs. Wolowitz and Regina King as Janine from Human Resources. But undoubtedly, the show succeeded because of its core seven, with each actor at some point receiving prestigious nominations. Since the show ended, a spinoff centering on Sheldon as a child has been in syndication. Aptly titled Young Sheldon, the spinoff was renewed for multiple seasons early last year. Given that none of the original actors (excluding Jim Parsons) take part in it, here’s what the cast of The Big Bang Theory are up to now.

Related: Big Bang Theory Star Mayim Bialik Hints at Secret Reasons Why the Show Really Ended

Mayim Bialik

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Warner Bros. Television

Season 3 introduced Amy Farrah Fowler as Sheldon’s love interest for the rest of the series, thanks to Raj and Howard who found her on a dating website. Interestingly enough, prior to Mayim Bialik’s introduction to the show, Raj mentioned her, saying “You know who's apparently very smart is the girl who played TV’s Blossom. She got a PhD in neuroscience or something.” Like Amy, Bialik has succeeded in neurology, having earned a degree at UCLA. Now, Bialik can be seen on two TV shows. She executive-produces and stars in the FOX comedy Call Me Kat, based on a British sitcom called Miranda. The show follows Kat, a single woman who runs a café in Louisville. The show also stars Kyla Pratt and Leslie Jordan, and had the Blossom cast as guest stars. Bialik can also be seen as one of the hosts of the daytime game show, Jeopardy!, a role she shares with the highest-earning game show contestant, Ken Jennings.

Kaley Cuoco

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Warner Bros. Television

Penny was the OG female character of the series, played by Kaley Cuoco. Living next door to Sheldon and Leonard, Penny was an aspiring actress who, unfortunately for her, worked at The Cheesecake Factory, but she went off to get a career as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Prior to her role on the sitcom, Cuoco was known for playing Bridget on 8 Simple Rules and voicing Brandy on Brandy & Mr. Whiskers. Cuoco now stars in the HBO drama series, The Flight Attendant, playing the lead character Cassie. She also stars in and executive-produces the adult animated series, Harley Quinn, also on HBO Max. Cuoco can be seen in Priceline commercials as she serves as the spokesperson, and, according to Deadline, is set to star in a romantic comedy alongside Pete Davidson.

Johnny Galecki

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Warner Bros. Television

Sheldon’s roommate and Penny’s eventual husband, Leonard Hofstadter was played by Johnny Galecki. An experimental physicist, Leonard, like his friends, was a stereotypical nerd who loved videogames and comic books. He became one of the highest-paid television actors in the world for this role in which he earned approximately $900k per episode. As a child, Galecki was featured in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and had a guest role on one episode of Blossom with his future TBBT costar. Galecki had a recurring role on Roseanne playing David Healy, which he reprised on the 2018 spinoff The Conners. He has made cameos on Family Guy and Lip Sync Battle – the episode in which his costar Cuoco sang against Josh Gad.

Simon Helberg

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Warner Bros. Television

The colorfully dressed, momma’s boy, aerospace engineer without a PhD, Howard Wolowitz was played by Simon Helberg. His character began the show as, in the simplest terms, a creepy self-proclaimed “womanizer,” but upon meeting his future wife, Bernadette, he changed his ways and became a husband and father. Aside from TBBT, Helberg can be seen in the 2004 movie, A Cinderella Story and 2016’s Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep. His voice was featured in one episode of Young Sheldon, where he still played the character we know and love. He voiced a squirrel on the Disney+ series Dug Days, a spinoff of the Pixar film Up. In 2021, he starred in the musical drama Annette, and most recently he can be seen in the indie movie, As They Made Us, which was written, directed and produced by Bialik.

Related: One Big Bang Theory Star Feels It's Far Too Soon for a Reunion Special

Kunal Nayyar

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Warner Bros. Television

The Indian astrophysicist who overcame his selective mutism in season 6 was played by Kunal Nayyar. Raj Koothrapali was the dainty one of the group, being an unashamed rom-com lover with an infatuation for novels targeted towards women. He was the only one of the group to not get married, but he did have a puppy named Cinnamon to keep him company. While doing TBBT, Nayyar also voiced the father on the Nickelodeon series Sanjay and Craig. In addition, he guest starred on The Mindy Project and Sullivan & Son. As of 2016, Nayyar has played Guy Diamond in the Trolls franchise and has had a main role on the British thriller series, Suspicion. In 2021, ComingSoon announced that he’d joined the cast of the upcoming Adam Sandler science fiction drama, Spaceman.

Jim Parsons

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Warner Bros. Television

Perhaps the most memorable character on the show is Sheldon Cooper, the former child prodigy who began college at 11 and got his PhD at only 16. Sheldon was a theoretical physicist who, along with his wife Amy, ended the show winning a Nobel Prize. The prequel series Young Sheldon, focusing on his childhood, began in 2017 where his character is played by Iain Armitage. Jim Parsons serves as the show’s narrator and like Sheldon, his TBBT friends were all seen as children during the season 2 finale. Aside from Dr. Cooper, Parsons had guest starred on an episode of iCarly in 2007 and has voiced Buddy the Elf in an animated Christmas special. He executive-produces Bialik’s comedy, Call Me Kat and completely contradicting his role as a Klingon-speaking, germaphobic, comedic geek, he played the uptight Paul Stafford in the film Hidden Figures. Along with that, Parsons was featured in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Vile and Evil and The Boys in the Band, and his next project is set to be the biographical film based on Michael Ausiello, titled Spoiler Alert.

Melissa Rauch

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Warner Bros. Television

Season 3 brought along another new character to the cast. Melissa Rauch played Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Howard’s girlfriend and eventual wife. Like Penny, Bernadette worked at The Cheesecake Factory, but eventually became a microbiologist. Rauch is another TBBT regular who portrayed an animated Harley Quinn, lending her voice to the cartoon clown in 2017’s Batman and Harley Quinn. Additionally, she’s done voice acting for Animaniacs, Robot Chicken and Marvel’s Ant-Man which aired on Disney XD. Rauch also acted in the films Ode to Joy and The Laundromat, both in 2019 and is set to star in the upcoming reboot of Night Court.