The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper Is Based On A Real Person

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Sheldon Cooper, one of the main characters on "The Big Bang Theory" who's played by Jim Parsons, is ... unique, to say the least. Some, including a few of his onscreen friends like Leonard and Penny Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco), might use a different word, like "difficult," "stubborn," or "impossible" (and those are just a few of the kind ones). Seriously, though — Sheldon has a decently kind heart underneath all of his intellectual superiority and bluster, though he doesn't show it very often, preferring to lambast his loved ones over their career choices, whether or not they have advanced degrees, and a whole host of other things. I say all of this to illustrate how absolutely wild it is that, apparently, Sheldon Cooper was inspired by a real person. (Also, his name was originally "Kenny," but that's another story for another time.)

During an appearance at Paleyfest in 2009 (via The TV Addict), creator and showrunner Bill Prady said that, yes, Sheldon was inspired by a guy he knew at one point in his life. "Before I was a writer I was a computer programmer and was working with guys who were amazingly bright and had a little trouble fitting into the world, me among them," Prady recalled to the crowd. "I would tell Chuck [Lorre, Prady's co-creator and showrunner] about a guy I knew who was a human calculator. If you programmed in Z80 assembly you had to convert from decimal to hexadecimal and you could either grab the calculator or you could shout it to this guy and he would be faster. But he couldn't calculate a tip at a restaurant. And the reason is because the formula for a tip is 15-20% depending upon the quality of the service and he couldn't put a numeric value on the service. It was human."

So there you have it: this mystery man, described as a "human calculator" using a ton of terms like "Z80 assembly" that I personally do not understand, helped inspire the character of Sheldon Cooper. (Sorry, man.) As Prady and Lorre said in a book about "The Big Bang Theory," this guy's qualities may have actually inspired multiple characters on the show.

Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady expanded on this story in Jessica Radloff's 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," with Lorre saying that one weekend the two were preparing to go ahead with their series idea when one of Prady's personal stories really popped. "One weekend, Bill was telling me about his computer programming days back in the '80s, and these wonderful characters that he worked with who were beyond brilliant, but entirely inept in the real world," Lorre said, using that same aforementioned example of a guy who can do advanced math but not calculate a restaurant tip. "And I recall saying, 'Well, that's the show!'" Lorre recalled. "'That's the show we should be doing! That's fantastic! These are great characters.'"

As Prady told Radloff, that same guy he talked about at Paleyfest had a lot of very specific qualities ... and rather than putting them all into the character of Sheldon Cooper, Kunal Nayyar's Raj Koothrappali received some of this dude's traits too. "That specific conversation in his office in Burbank, where we started talking about the guys I worked with at our software company," Prady recalled, continuing:

"The specific calculations one guy could do in his head were remarkable. He was a mathematical savant. He also had selective mutism around women. We broke those two qualities off [between Sheldon and Raj], because although it was based on an actual person, it would have seemed unbelievable on a show at the time, even though this person really did suffer in that way. Now we look at these things and have a better understanding of people who are neuro-atypical and who process the world differently, but at the time, he was just that dude! And he did that stuff!"

Honestly, I'm starting to feel bad for this guy whose personality traits were basically mined for content by two showrunners and also deemed too quirky to be "realistic." With that said, both Raj and Sheldon experience significant growth on the show, thanks in large part to another character's kindness and empathy.

If this is any solace or comfort to the guy whose personality was transplanted into Sheldon Cooper and, to a lesser extent, Raj Koothrappali, both men are changed for their better through their respective friendships with Penny. Penny is the show's indisputable audience proxy — meaning that she doesn't know anything about their scientific work, which gives viewers an entry point into the complex intellectual world of Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and their other buddy Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) all occupy. (Still, it's important to note that the show's pilot does her dirty.) Penny is smart, but simply in a different way, and she softens the guys, especially Raj and Sheldon, and helps them grow into different people (in Sheldon's case, Penny definitely helps him be nicer to people). 

In 2022, Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre spoke to Entertainment Weekly for the 15th anniversary of "The Big Bang Theory" and discussed how, through Penny, characters like Leonard and Sheldon were able to basically discover new sides of themselves and even the world beyond their apartment. "These characters were struggling to participate in the world and it was hard and even painful to do so," Lorre told interviewer Keith Langston. "That's something we've all felt and can understand. I think most people can identify with it on some level, that alienation, even popular people."

Elsewhere in the interview, Lorre noted one important thing about Penny's character: "Penny was a risk." Prady agreed, saying, "Exactly. Personally, I think the world is a terrifying place, and I hate parties and talking to people and all that, so I get that idea of, "Maybe I should just stay home and watch 'Star Trek' [...] 'Star Trek' is my friend, and 'Star Trek' has never failed me."

"Sheldon had a very circumscribed life," Lorre continued. "But Penny was this random element that was introduced into their lives and changed them forever. Sheldon was never able to have the rigid order he wanted after her arrival." (Also, as Lorre pointed out, "And Penny is the one who cured Raj. She was the pivot point for all these characters.") Hopefully, that guy who inspired Prady is doing okay, and maybe had a positive influence like Penny in his life.

"The Big Bang Theory" is streaming on Max now.