birthdays: Mayim Bialik (info)

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Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik grew up in San Diego and got her first acting job (Pacto de sangre (1988)) when she was just 12 years old. A number of TV roles followed until in 1990 she was cast in Blossom (1990), the role which made her famous.

By 1993, while Blossom was still airing, she had already won a deferred place at Harvard and was also accepted by Yale but chose in the end to attend UCLA. She was awarded her Bachelor's degree in 2000 and began reading for a PhD in Neuroscience (studying Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in adolescents with Prader-Willi syndrome) which she eventually completed in 2007.

She continued working throughout her studies and was a regular on US TV screens, becoming a Prime Time face again in 2010 when she began her regular appearances as "Sheldon's friend who is not his girlfriend" in the hit series Big Bang (2007). - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse

Michael Stone (31 August 2003 - 1 May 2013) (divorced) (2 children)

Trivia

Her first name means "water" in Hebrew.

Was accepted to both Harvard and Yale, but turned them down to attend UCLA.

Was good friends with the late Bill Bixby. As he went public with his illness, he directed her sitcom, Blossom (1990), and continued working up until his death on 21 November 1993.

Plays piano, trumpet, bass guitar, as well as the harp which she learned to play for The Big Bang Theory (2007).

Adopted a whale, a wolf, and a manatee.

Is an accomplished dancer. She and Blossom (1990) co-star, Jenna von Oÿ took lessons in between breaks in the filming season.

Received her Ph.D in neuroscience from UCLA (2008).

Contrary to popular belief, did not do her own singing for the role of young "C.C. Bloom" in Eternamente amigas (1988). Although Mayim can sing, Bette Midler decided she wanted to feature a singer who sounded more like she herself did at age eleven, and another singer was substituted.

Played the recurring role of a lesbian on Larry David (1999) in what is deemed part of her "comeback" to acting after years of college studies and motherhood.

She is not related to Wall Street Journal online columnist Carl Bialik.

Her grandparents were European refugees from the Holocaust, immigrating from Poland and Czechoslovakia/Hungary. Bialik was raised in the Reform Jewish religion.

Follows a vegan diet (no animal products of any kind).

According to a 2009 interview, her great great grandfather was the nephew of Chaim Nahman Bialik, a Russian poet, who moved to Tel Aviv in the 1920s and who is today considered the national poet of Israel.

Sustained an injury to her right hand in a car accident in Los Angeles on August 15, 2012 but later tweeted that she would "keep all my fingers" after reports that her thumb was almost severed. Nearly lost the use of her right index finger.

Gave birth to her 1st child, at age 29, son Miles Roosevelt Bialik Stone, on October 10, 2005. Child's father is her now ex-husband, Michael Stone.

Gave birth to her 2nd child, at age 32, son Frederick Heschel Bialik Stone, on August 15, 2008. Child's father is her now ex-husband, Michael Stone.

Separated from her husband of 9 years, Michael Stone. [November 2012]

Music director for the UCLA Jewish a capella group "Shir Bruin"

Is an avid cat lover (ailurophile).

Never watched an episode of the last three seasons of Blossom (1990).

Personal Quotes

The fact is safe co-sleeping is not difficult. The notion of babies being smothered is simply not true. And the benefits of sleeping together are profound.

You know, there's a tremendous amount of genetic propensity not necessarily for what TV shows you like but for literally how you view the world, how you react to things, how things touch you and how things move you.

As a kid, I felt really weird.

I don't want to say everything happens for a reason but every day is lined up right next to the other one for a reason. The best you can do is do each day well with kindness and as a good person.

A lot of stuff I wear I've had since high school.

Attachment parenting is not a passive parenting style.

Auditions are hard. You should see what most of the women look like when I audition for things - they look like they should be on the catwalk.

Being a caregiver for your child is part of the job description of being a mammal.

Breast-feeding is the natural, optimal way to feed a child.

Drama is what I did before 'Blossom.'

I came to parenting the way most of us do - knowing nothing and trying to learn everything.

I don't care much about conforming.

I don't look like most women in the industry.

I don't wear pants, or like them; I'm a Jewish woman who's made the decision to wear skirts, so I wear mostly skirts past the knee.

I get maybe four hours of sleep a night. I'm a little bit crazy.

I have a life. My kids don't run my house.

I like army boots, I like peasant skirts - sometimes together! So I do know that I have odd taste.

I like bold colors but usually wear black.

I started acting because I enjoyed school plays.

I think a lot of times on TV we see caricatures - that's what's funny.

I was raised on comic books, and I love science fiction.

I was raised on the purest comedy there is: 'I Love Lucy.' I was raised watching 'Three's Company' and sitcoms of the '70s and '80s.

I'm a pretty quiet person.

I'm big on my kids being conventionally polite, and it works really well for them.

I'm concerned about the ocean and the environment. And I love whales.

I'm definitely on the spectrum of socially awkward.

I'm generally intimidated by adults.

I'm good with a script.

I'm one of those people that makes a better adult than I did a kid.

I'm one of those people that thinks the Internet is amazing, and I can't believe it exists.

I'm super grateful to be an employed actor.

I'm technically a vegan, but I do eat egg if it's in things.

I've never had a sinus infection or been on antibiotics since cutting out dairy.

My first son didn't really take a bottle, and I didn't like giving bottles.

One of the best things my mother passed on to me was being an efficient multi-tasker.

Publicly I'm a very modest dresser, by Hollywood's standards.

Relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose.

The level of communication you can achieve with an infant is really profound.

The most empowering feminist act is for women to be taught about the ways babies bond and then decide what they want to do.

There's a tremendous amount to be gained from being a performer, and being an artist, and being an actor.

To be honest, it's considered very late to start acting at 11 and a half, for the industry. Most kids are doing it from toddlerhood on.

Well, I mean, I'm still a scientist, you know. I think once a scientist, always a scientist.

When you're used to being prepared to reject conventional wisdom, it leaves you open to learn more.

You don't have to be an at-home parent to be an attachment parent.

Actors are a lot like professors on dissertation committees - it's a lot of ego, a lot of rallying for position, there is a lot at stake in every single interaction.

Even as a child, I felt very guilty about eating animals and never knew that there was something to do about it. And as I got older, it became clearer that there are things that I can do and choices I can make.

I basically look like a lot of modern Orthodox people you know, but I work on a TV show where I sometimes have to kiss Jim Parsons. That's why I don't take on the title of modern Orthodox, but in terms of ideology and theology I pretty much sound like a liberal modern Orthodox person.

I do believe babies are born potty-trained. They're born knowing and are able to give subtle signals that become very prominent if you reinforce them.

I have a neuroscience background - that's what my doctorate is in - and I was trained to study hormones of attachment, so I definitely feel my parenting is informed by that.

I think neuroscience is obviously very esoteric, but I think there are aspects of it that can absolutely be brought down to the level of an interested 11-, 12-, 13-year-old easily.

I was always kind of a school person - my parents were teachers, and my grandparents were immigrants, so their big thing was, 'Go to college, go to college, go to college.'

I've become sort of an accidental advocate for attachment parenting, which is a style of parenting that... basically, the way mammals parent and the way people have parented for pretty much all of human history except the last 200 years or so.

It used to be that if you were on a sitcom you couldn't get work in film because it was so different. Now it's almost like you have to be on TV to do other film work.

It's wonderful to be appreciated for being quirky, and to see Zooey Deschanel and the quirky, indie film types get mainstream play is amazing for women, because women are much more complicated than what we've see on TV in the past.

Sleeping with your child, wearing your child in a sling as opposed to pushing them around in expensive strollers, those are things that matter biologically and sociologically for the structure of a family.