Mayim Bialik, a neuroscientist and actress who can be seen on the hit CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory," will be the featured speaker at Penn State Lehigh Valley's Commencement ceremony, to be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 7, at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem.
Born in California to first-generation Jewish American parents who were documentary filmmakers and teachers, Mayim Hoya Bialik is best known for her lead role as "Blossom Russo" in the early-'90s NBC sitcom "Blossom." She also played the young Bette Midler in "Beaches" and had guest roles on some of television's most beloved shows of the 1980s and 1990s, including "MacGuyver," "Webster," and "The Facts of Life." She appeared in Woody Allen's "Don't Drink the Water" in 1994, and has more recently appeared in HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." She has been the guest on numerous talk shows, including "The Arsenio Hall Show" and "The Tonight Show," as well as on Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien's earliest forays into late-night television. Most recently, Bialik can be seen playing "Amy Farrah Fowler" on the hit NBC comedy "The Big Bang Theory."
Bialik earned a bachelor of science degree from UCLA in 2000 in neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and a doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007. Her thesis in psychoneuroendocrinology examined hypothalamic secretions and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in adolescents with Prader-Willi syndrome.
Bialik is married and has two sons, born in 2005 and 2008. She lives in southern California and enjoys cooking vegan food, practicing attachment parenting and natural family living, and studying Judaism.
For more information, contact University Relations at 610-285-5067.