The Stunning Transformation Of Melissa Rauch

Melissa Rauch came a long way before landing the role of Bernadette on "The Big Bang Theory." Even after graduating from theater school, the young actress had to work hard to be taken seriously as a performer, and waited tables in New York City for a steady paycheck while handing out fliers on the street in hopes that anyone would come see her perform. While Rauch did book some TV roles, many of her early creative endeavors never made it to the screen. "I was so grateful when ['The Big Bang Theory'] happened," Rauch told Backstage. 

According to Rauch, her role on the CBS show was only supposed to be a guest appearance. However, when the show's writers had her character get engaged to Howard Wolowitz, Rauch realized that she had finally landed a recurring role in the comedy world as part of the watched comedy on television.

While the wildly popular series came to an end in 2019, it's safe to say it started off Rauch's career with a bang (pun totally intended). Here's a look at the stunning transformation of Melissa Rauch.

Melissa Rauch knew she was in for a life of laughs when she became obsessed with comedy in kindergarten. "I remember my parents said that there are people who do impersonations for a living," she revealed on "At Home With Linda & Drew Scott." As Rauch explained to the HGTV stars, her parents' words of encouragement are what inspired her to make comedy her career.

While Rauch wasn't allowed to stay up past her bedtime, her parents would record late night talk shows for the coming-up comedian so she could see her favorites on screen. Soon, Rauch was given the opportunity to show off her comedy chops at her school's talent show. During a 2016 interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Rauch revealed that she prepared a stand-up set the school showcase. 

Speaking to Conan O'Brien in 2012, the actress said she was quite the class clown. "I would watch sets of, like, Whoopi Goldberg, and do things that were wildly inappropriate that I really didn't understand." In fact, as Rauch admitted, her parents were often called in to her school due to her raunchy jokes and wild behavior. Oops!

Melissa Rauch spent her childhood honing her comedic abilities — and when it was time to start her college career, the future star enrolled in a university that would help her develop her skill even more. However, she had to pack up her bags (as well as her jokes) and move from her small town in New Jersey to New York City to make it happen.

During her time at Marymount Manhattan College, Rauch became classically trained in theater and performance; but her thick New Jersey accent seemed a bit out of place for what she was performing. As Rauch explained on "At Home With Linda & Drew Scott," professors even told her she couldn't "do Shakespeare" with her accent. 

To help break her accent so that she'd be taken seriously by her peers and professors, the budding actress enrolled in a dialect class. This helped Rauch expand her range as both a classically trained performer and aspiring stand-up comedian — and soon the future star was impressing her classmates by performing "SNL"-worthy impressions of famous people.

Melissa Rauch might have been super focused on achieving her comedy goals while in college, but that doesn't mean she was too busy to make new friends. In fact, chasing her dreams as both an aspiring comedian and college student led Rauch to meet screenwriter Winston Beigel — a man who later became quite important to the future star.

Upon discovering they had similar comedic aspirations, Rauch and Beigel decided to team up for even more creative brain power and began writing together on a regular basis. As Rauch told Backstage, writing quickly became essential to who she was as an artist. "I didn't care if five people saw it — [writing] feeds the creative part of me and gets to the goods of why you're doing this," the actress revealed.

These writing sessions led to the funny duo spending quite a bit of time together, as Rauch admitted on "At Home With Linda & Drew Scott." And in an adorably romantic turn of events, the man who started as Rauch's writing partner eventually became her life partner.

As Melissa Rauch admitted on the podcast "At Home With Linda & Drew Scott," she and Winston Beigel didn't know each other all too well when they decided to become partners in comedy. "[We] were barely, I mean, barely friends when we actually started writing together," the comedic actress revealed. 

However, their barely there friendship didn't stay that way for long. Even though the two are known more for comedy than romance, they found themselves in a real life love story while they were both still students, and eventually went on to wed in 2007. "He is my best friend and the love of my life, in addition to being an incredible writing partner," Rauch gushed to New Jersey Monthly. 

Writing aside, Rauch is happy she met her soulmate so early on in her life. "The only thing I regret is not meeting him even sooner, as my life has just gotten better since he came into it," Rauch said on "At Home With Linda & Drew Scott." One thing's for sure — these two will definitely have a lifetime full of love and laughter!

When Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel graduated from college, they began working together on a story about a college kid trying to make it in the real world. Obviously, the two had been inspired by their own experiences as college kids; however, something about their story just wasn't working. 

Fortunately, while watching television on their couch one random day, they finally discovered what their story was missing. "We saw Jenna Bush speaking at the Republican Convention on TV, and she was about the same age as us," Rauch explained on "At Home With Linda & Drew Scott." The actress continued, saying, "And we got the idea to sort of combine her story, a fictional story about her, with [our story]." This resulted in a one-woman show called "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush," starring Rauch.  

After performing "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush" at the New York International Fringe Festival, Rauch was approached by an agent. Knowing this was her shot, she and Beigel decided to move to Los Angeles. "That was essentially what got me out of waiting tables," Rauch admitted.

Though Melissa Rauch's big move to Los Angeles came after her one-woman show in New York City proved to be a hit, the actress struggled to find jobs that would stick. Once, she auditioned to be a hand model for a TGI Friday's commercial, but even her hands couldn't make the cut. "I was doing a lot of driving around, crying in my car," she admitted to Entertainment Tonight about her time in Hollywood. 

Throughout all the rejections, she continued to write with her husband, Winston Beigel, which helped her stay busy and keep her mind off rejection. "[Writing is] such a great way to feel like you're not at the mercy of such a hard, hard industry," Rauch told Backstage. "So many times as an actor you feel beaten up and rejected and there's such a lack of control."

One of Melissa Rauch's first professional jobs was in VH1's comedy sketch series "Best Week Ever," in which she appeared from 2004 to 2008. While the show wasn't exactly huge by Hollywood standards, it was a big step for Rauch's career, as the actor detailed to Us Weekly.

Not only was this job her first real success in the industry, but it also gave her her first taste of what being famous might be like. "I went back to my mall in New Jersey, which is what I do when I go visit my parents, and I was at a Wetzel's Pretzels," the actress recalled. "The manager was like, 'I love the show! It's awesome!' and gave me a free pretzel. I was so excited!" However, when the show was canceled, Rauch apparently had to start paying for her pretzels again.

While her early brush with fame didn't necessarily make her crave stardom, it did make her fascinated with small-town celebrities. Years later, she and her husband even wrote a movie inspired by her experience (via Interview).

A call to audition for a new television sitcom called "The Big Bang Theory" couldn't have come at a better time for Melissa Rauch. "I was at the unemployment office the day before I got the audition for this show," she told Entertainment Tonight. In 2009, the actor was offered the role of Bernadette Rostenkowski on "The Big Bang Theory"; however, it was initially intended to only be a guest appearance during the show's third season. 

"I thought I was just gonna be here for a week," Rauch told TV Insider. However, as Bernadette's love interest, Howard Wolowitz, fell in love with her, the producers on the show fell in love with Rauch too. Finally, after years of struggling to break into entertainment, Rauch was offered a recurring role on the popular sitcom, which ended up lasting nearly a decade. "The fact that I know I have a job to come back to after the summer is such a dream come true," Rauch said in a 2014 interview on "Larry King Now."

Not only did Rauch receive a consistent gig, but she got her break into show business on what would become the longest-running multi-camera comedy in television history (via Deadline). Her time in the spotlight was just taking off into stardom. "I'm just eternally grateful for the course that ['The Big Bang Theory'] put my life on," Rauch told Entertainment Tonight.

As Melissa Rauch revealed in a 2016 interview with Backstage, when she originally auditioned for "The Big Bang Theory," she did so using a Canadian accent. 

Though this accent didn't stick, the impersonations she practiced as a kid and the dialect classes she took in college did come in handy for creating a unique voice for Bernadette. "Bernadette's voice is very similar to my mother's ... except without the Jersey accent." Rauch revealed on "The Rubin Report."

When fans find Rauch out and about, they're usually shocked to hear the actress respond in a much lower register than her famed character. "Sometimes I'll get recognized, and then they'll hear my voice, and be like, 'Oh, that's not — that's not you,'" Rauch told Dave Rubin.

While Melissa Rauch was finding her voice on "The Big Bang Theory," she was also creating unique voices for cartoon characters. In fact, Rauch's impressive impressions and vocal range led to her landing roles in "Ice Age: Collision Course," "Sofia the First," and "Jake and the Never Land Pirates."

"You approach doing [voice-over work] the same way you would any other acting role," Rauch explained to "The Movie Times." The actress continued, joking, "Except for the fact that you don't have to wear makeup, and you do it without Spanx."

When she landed the role of the bad gal in "Batman and Harley Quinn," Rauch used her Jersey roots for inspiration. "I knew Harley had a higher pitched tone, and a bit of a New York accent," she explained to Empire. Rauch continued, saying, "I come from a New Jersey family where everyone could be former gun molls, [so] I wanted to give a nod to my background without being as shrill." 

Apparently, you can take a girl out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey accent out of the girl.

Melissa Rauch loved starring on "The Big Bang Theory" — but during her off seasons, she found herself wanting to star on the big screen. So, the actress decided to take things into her own hands and write her own film with husband Winston Beigel. Rauch explained her thought process to Vanity Fair, saying, "Okay, well, I may not be getting the film roles I want, so let's create them." 

And create them she did. Rauch and her husband soon came up with an idea for a film about a one-time Olympic bronze medalist who, years later, refuses to stop living in her past glory days. Appropriately titled "The Bronze," the film proved a hard sell, and many producers argued they needed a big box office name for the flick to be a success. However, Rauch knew the lead role inside and out, so she and Beigel financed it themselves until they were finally able to sell it to Sony Pictures Classics (via Backstage). 

"I don't know that this role would have come along for me had I not written it with my husband," Rauch admitted to Vanity Fair.

Melissa Rauch is proof that hard work, faith in yourself, and a little luck from the universe is sometimes all you need to succeed. 

Speaking with Fountain Interviews in 2012, Rauch gushed about one of her biggest acting idols, saying, "Meryl Streep, I just look up to so much." Like many performers, Rauch had long dreamed of working with the iconic Streep — so imagine her excitement when she was finally given the chance to live out her dream seven years later. 

Just as Rauch was wrapping up her time on "The Big Bang Theory" — which came to an end in 2019 — she landed the opportunity to star in "The Laundromat." Distributed by Netflix and released in 2019, "The Laundromat" tells the true story of a journalist, played by Streep, who investigated the 2016 Panama Papers scandal. "Working with and being in the presence of [director] Steven Soderbergh and Meryl Streep was nothing short of a dream come true," Rauch gushed on Instagram.

Melissa Rauch is a mother now, but her journey to parenthood was not an easy one. When she first became pregnant in 2017, it was both an exciting and emotional time. Instead of announcing it on Instagram as most ecstatic expectant mothers do, she penned a personal essay for Glamour, describing the miscarriage she had experienced before finally expecting her daughter, Sadie. 

"During the time when I was grieving over my pregnancy loss or struggling with fertility issues, every joyful, expectant baby announcement felt like a tiny stab in the heart," she wrote, explaining how she didn't want other women to feel the same way when she announced her exciting news.

The story of her second baby didn't seem to be any easier. When Rauch gave birth to her son Brooks in 2020, she found herself in the hospital room without her husband, due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, she wasn't afraid. "I won't be alone," she penned in a second essay for Glamour. Rauch continued, writing, "I have a partner. The same one that's been listening to my heartbeat inside me for nine months." 

Shortly after Melissa Rauch gave birth to her daughter, the new mama became inspired to eat healthier. 

In 2019, Rauch partnered with the health food brand House Foods to create a children's picture cookbook called "The Tales of Tofu." "I was excited to figure out a fun way to introduce kids to a less familiar, but incredibly good-for-you-food that's so versatile," she told Parade of one of her personal favorite foods. While tofu notoriously gets a bad rap due to its chewy texture and barely-there flavor, Rauch was determined to make tofu appealing to children by crafting recipes that incorporated tofu in surprising, creative ways.

"I was excited to include chocolate pudding in the book," Rauch told Parade. The actress continued, saying, "It feels like you're eating something so decadent and it's actually good for you, so that's something that I love." As delicious as that sounds, it's hard to imagine kids wanting to eat tofu every day.

Melissa Rauch might have been turned away when she auditioned to be a hand model for a TGI Fridays commercial, but now her hands are forever immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! 

The day after filming the series finale of "The Big Bang Theory" in April 2019, Rauch and her castmates, including star Kaley Cuoco, had the honor of stamping their handprints into cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. "As if being a part of ['The Big Bang Theory'] wasn't enough of an honor of a lifetime,  getting to share this moment at the [Chinese Theater] with these wonderful friends today was truly incredible," Rauch gushed on X. 

There's no arguing that "The Big Bang Theory" solidified a place for Rauch in the entertainment industry — and the breakout star said she's looking forward to what the rest of her career has in store. "My heart has been so happy working on this show, and I want to continue to do something that makes my heart happy," Rauch revealed in a 2019 interview with Parade.

It all started with the big bang — of a gavel. In 2021, NBC ordered a pilot for a "Night Court" revival series starring Melissa Rauch. John Larroquette returned as Dan Fielding, whom he portrayed on the original series from 1984 to 1992. Rauch was cast as a new character named Abracadabra "Abby" Stone, a judge carrying on the legacy of her father, Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson), by presiding over some of Manhattan's kookiest cases.

When Rauch first set out to breathe new life into a beloved classic, she had no intention of joining the cast; her plan was to executive-produce the sitcom with her husband. The project interested her because she had fond childhood memories of the original show. "I remember watching 'Night Court' with my family and very vividly either my mother or father saying, 'Cover her ears!' [laughs]," she recalled to Edge Magazine. "Of course, that made me even more interested in it. I remember laughing so much — even if things were going over my head." Rauch changed her mind about only wanting to be involved with the revival in a behind-the-scenes capacity when she read the script and realized what a dream come true it would be to act alongside Larroquette.

Larroquette was initially hesitant to revisit his old character. "We came to him with the idea and he said, 'No thank you, move on little lady,'" Rauch recalled to Decider. But she didn't give up on convincing him, and her persistence eventually paid off. It helped that she decided to join the cast. "I wouldn't be here except for Melissa, because if she wasn't doing the show ... I wouldn't have done the show," Larroquette told People.

Before the series premiere of the "Night Court" reboot, Melissa Rauch returned to the small screen in a smaller capacity. When her former "The Big Bang Theory" castmate Mayim Bialik was still hosting "Celebrity Jeopardy!" in 2022, Rauch appeared on the show as a contestant. Her competitors were two other comedic actors: Ray Romano of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame and "Fire Island" star Joel Kim Booster. Rauch and Romano tied for second place, with Booster beating them both soundly. "Kids at home, I learned a lot," Rauch said at the end of the show. "There's a lot of mistakes, so all the learning."

While she didn't win, Rauch still scored $30,000 for the charity she chose to play for, Oscar's Kids. She actually launched the nonprofit herself in 2021 to raise money for pediatric cancer research. Rauch also left the show with a gift for her mom, unbeknown to her. At one point, Rauch had said of one of her answers, "Yes, I'm sure about it." However, her demeanor suggested otherwise. Her words were placed over a screengrab of her uncertain smile, and a meme was born.

On "The Late Show With Seth Meyers," Rauch revealed that her mom somehow managed to learn about the meme and got a little mileage out of it. "It's completely shocking, because it's very much not like my mother. ... She sends me these pictures whenever I'm on the phone with her or saying anything that I'm saying with confidence, that I'm maybe not 100% correct with," Rauch said. She couldn't recall what question she was answering when she became a meme, telling Seth Meyers, "I think I completely blacked out on that entire experience. ... [It was] terrifying."

The "Night Court" revival was a rousing success when it debuted in January 2023, pulling in more viewers than any NBC sitcom in half a decade. According to The Hollywood Reporter, its viewership numbers were even higher than those of the popular "Big Bang Theory" spin-off "Young Sheldon." So, it's no surprise that some of Melissa Rauch's former castmates were eager to reunite with her on the bona fide hit in a guest-starring capacity.

Kunal Nayyar, who played Raj Koothrappali on "TBBT," was up first. He told Entertainment Weekly that he actually begged Rauch to give him a role on "Night Court" before it was even ordered to series, and he eventually got his wish. In February 2024, he appeared on "Night Court" as a designer who doubled as a love interest for Rauch's character. The former longtime co-stars had to film a kissing scene, which they had actually done before on "TBBT" (in Raj's dreams). However, this time was a bit different because Rauch's husband, Winston Beigel was on the set. On "The View," Rauch revealed that Beigel even critiqued the kiss, telling her it needed to be more passionate. "He was like, 'You know, you should really get into it more. Go for it. Look at his complexion. Stroke his face. Really go for it!'" she recalled (via Decider).

Nayyar also found the ordeal a bit awkward, not only because he and Beigel are friends, but also because he and Rauch are close — in more of a familial way. "It's really funny because it's like kissing your sister," he told TVLine.

During a January 2024 appearance on "Today," Melissa Rauch revealed that she had been having a little extra fun with her "Night Court" role by unofficially marrying couples in the studio audience while clad in her character's judicial attire. She enjoyed it so much that she decided to get ordained. "Usually, I have been doing vow renewals, but last week I got to marry a couple," she proudly told the "Today" co-hosts.

Rauch also continued making her show more fun for the viewers at home by really revving up the nostalgia factor. In January 2025, Mayim Bialik made a cameo on "Night Court" as a twisted version of herself, and she agreed to let Rauch indulge her inner "Blossom" fangirl. In another "Today" interview, Rauch revealed that she was obsessed with Bialik's '90s sitcom growing up — a trait she decided Judge Abby Stone should share. "When we first met, I was sitting next to [Bialik] at a table read [for 'The Big Bang Theory'], and I was like, 'Do I tell that there's pictures of me on Halloween dressed as her as a kid?'" she recalled. Thankfully, Rauch's relationship with Bialik didn't get weird because she was a fan of her co-star, and she even got to dress like Blossom on "Night Court" by rocking a sunflower hat.

Sadly, Rauch didn't get to take home an original "Blossom" hat — because Bialik doesn't own any to give away. In an interview with TVLine, Bialik explained why she has no wardrobe mementos from the series. "['Blossom'] was a Disney show, and Disney, when you end the show, they make you give back your bras and undies," she quipped.

If "Night Court" used the same episode title formula as "The Big Bang Theory," an apt title for the May 2025 Season 3 finale would be "The Conjugal Collision" — because it concluded with worlds colliding in a matrimonial manner. It was revealed that Abby had been secretly married the entire time she was dating Jake (Ryan Hansen), and her husband was played by none other than Simon Helberg. Of reuniting with her on-screen spouse from "TBBT," Rouch told TV Insider, "It was emotional. I was very excited that he was there, but there was also just this sense of like, 'Oh, wow, we're getting to do this again and getting to be together.'" Helberg wasn't the episode's only connection to "The Big Bang Theory" universe; "Young Sheldon" star Raegan Revord also appeared in it.

Unfortunately, fans never got to learn what was up with Abby's mysterious marriage. "Night Court" was canceled in May 2025, ending the series on a cliffhanger. In an emotional farewell post on Instagram, Rauch revealed that, when the show was put on the chopping block, she fought hard to save it from getting the axe, but to no avail. "We did everything in our power to find another home for it," she revealed. She also expressed her heartfelt gratitude to her castmates, writing, "As a kid whose best friend was TV, getting to play make believe with comedy legends on the recreation of a set I watched as a little girl felt like stepping through the looking glass in the best possible way."

Melissa Rauch doesn't share pictures of her children online, but she did show off their handiwork in an August 2025 Facebook photo after letting them use her face as a canvas. She posted it alongside a snapshot of herself embracing her inner cottagecore goddess and wrote, "Instagram vs The questionable decision to buy kids' face painting kits."

The actor also talks about her kids from time to time. In a 2023 appearance on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," Rauch revealed that her son and daughter thought she had more of a "Judge Judy" thing going on when she got cast on "Night Court" — meaning, they believed she was an actual judge. The show made it more difficult for Rauch to squeeze in time with her family because she had duties aside from acting that kept her busy. "As a producer, a lot of my work happens after hours," she told Woman's World in February 2025. "So, I fit it in after the kids go to bed or early in the morning, making sure I protect as much family time as possible."

Rauch said that she always puts her family first, and she has her own special way of showing her kids just how much she values their time together. "I just love being cuddled up as a family under blankets without a plan for the day," she said in a February 2025 interview with The New York Times. "When I see a day that can be protected, I'll make sure that it's snacks and movies and PJs all day." Perhaps she's also paying forward her own magical childhood experience by treating them to an occasional episode of the O.G. "Night Court" — and covering their ears when necessary.