Penny (The Big Bang Theory)

Penny is one of the main characters from the Big Bang Theory series.

Penny lives in Apartment 4Awith her husband Leonard Hofstadter across the hall from Sheldon Cooper, and Amy Farrah Fowler, who live in apartment 4B where Penny used to live. Her full first name is possibly "Penelope" as implied by "The Barbarian Sublimation", as her username was "Queen Penelope," and her maiden name has never been revealed, but due to her marriage to Leonard, her last name is Hofstadter. She unknowingly married her ex-boyfriend Zack Johnson for three years, so her name could include "Johnson." That marriage was finally annulled in "The Thanksgiving Decoupling".

An aspiring, but mostly unsuccessful actress, she was born on a farm near Omaha, Nebraska, and worked at The Cheesecake Factory as a waitress until she quit in "The Occupation Recalibration" (S7E13) to take up acting full time. Penny was the original female lead in the show before being joined by Bernadette Rostenkowski and Amy Farrah Fowlerand in season 8 started working at the same company as Bernadette.

She has always been Leonard's love interest since the pilot, with the two dating briefly in the first episode of the second season, for most of the third season, and they rekindled their romance in "The Recombination Hypothesis". As of "The Gorilla Dissolution", she and Leonard became engaged and were married at the start of season 9 in "The Matrimonial Momentum", followed by a vow renewal at the start of season 10 in "The Conjugal Conjecture".

Even though she is considered part of the guys' group, she represents the "dumb blond" for viewer context in the series with a lot of street smarts and communication skills to compensate for her lack of academic knowledge. As the series progresses, her knowledge of geeky subjects such as Doctor Who even surprises her.

To Penny, everyone is "Sweetie".

Appearance
Penny has shoulder-length blonde hair and dark eyes.

Personality
Penny is somewhat naive and not thoroughly educated, but has a lot of common sense (which she does not always use, particularly regarding her car's condition, her spending habits and her drinking) and street smarts. Her dream is to become a famous actress, a goal she never seems to waver from until season 8. She is very kind-hearted and empathetic toward people though she can blow up when made mad, which prompted Leonard to refer to her as "The Incredible Hulk" after she went off on Howard. She believes most guys are nice and has been hurt a lot. When someone shocks her, she tends to bat her eyes at them while she is considering her response. She also storms off in frustration when dealing with people like Sheldon (who, for example, she initially does not know has no concept of sarcasm, causing her to get frustrated when he takes her sarcastic barbs literally) or situations she can't believe or understand. She knows how to throw out wise-cracks and is very loyal to her man as long as she is not betrayed. She also has a tendency to deny doing things that are embarrassing or she suddenly realizes are embarrassing. In the first season she seemed very naive, but has appeared smarter in later seasons and more complicated in situations with her female friends. She also has a habit of being selfish and throwing her friends under the bus. For example, she sold Sheldon out to the court officials for running a red light, despite the fact he had done it to help her after she had dislocated her shoulder, simply because she didn't want the ticket. As demonstrated throughout her relationship with Leonard, Penny has a fear of commitment, which eventually diminished as time passed. Meanwhile during Season 10, Penny appears to have become ungrateful as she seems to forget all about the great things Leonard did for her in the past few years and believes that he's taking her for granted, when it's actually the other way around. In addition, she also has turned ignorant to everything in her life, thinking that her marriage to Leonard hasn't taken her anywhere, when in reality, a lot of fortune has come her way since then. She drinks more than average. But despite her bad attitude and selfish acts, Penny is deep down a good person and truly loves Leonard and their friends. Not much is said about her politics, though she does appear naïve about some issues and had been seen wearing a "Hillary (Clinton) 2008" t-shirt long after that election occurred.

Trivia

 * Penny was 21 years old at the beginning of the show, which means she is the youngest of the gang. Penny is a Sagittarius, meaning she was born between November 22 and December 21. In "The Prestidigitation Approximation", Howard does a fake magic card trick in which the sum of the digits of one's birth date, excluding the year, are used to get the number of the card to be selected. Penny turns over the fifth card, making her birthday in the span of the Sagittarius one of four possibilities: November 30th, December 2nd, December 11th, or December 20th. If Penny's birthday is November 30th (1+1+3+0=5), it would match the birthday of Kaley Cuoco (Saturday, November 30, 1985) exactly. The only possible birth date of Penny would be Monday, December 2, 1985 if one alternatively interprets the rules of Howard's card trick as requiring one to turn over the card corresponding to the sum of the digits of the month and adding the day. In "The Platonic Permutation" Leonard confirms that Penny's birthday is December 2. Though David Underhill refers to Penny as a "gorgeous 22-year-old" in "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" (air-date December 15, 2008), he could have simply estimated her age, as it certainly appears to be close to Christmas and the episodic events probably span days rather than weeks (if one were to ignore the hypothesis that the air date is reality in the show). In real life, Cuoco is the youngest of the group, and approximately 13 years younger than Jim Parsons, who is the oldest of the group.
 * Penny has been seen naked by three of the boys, Leonard, Sheldon and Raj, so far in the series. Howard is the only person who hasn't seen her naked and he probably won't since he's married and a father.
 * Leonard had relations with her multiple times in season 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. (Only one time in season 5.)
 * Sheldon peeked at her while trying to help her get dressed due to her injured shoulder in "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency".
 * Raj and Penny got undressed and had a one night stand in "The Roommate Transmogrification" (though it was revealed in the episode after that they never had intercourse at all).
 * In "The Robotic Manipulation", Sheldon calculates that Penny dated an estimate of 193 (±8) men and had relations with approximately 31 of them.
 * Penny grew up on a farm and rebuilt an entire tractor engine all by herself at the age of twelve.
 * Penny was a junior rodeo champion.
 * The previous occupant of Penny's apartment was a 200-pound transvestite named Louie/Louise with a skin condition, who worked as a police officer, according to Sheldon. He is seen during a flashback in "The Staircase Implementation", where he refers to Sheldon as 'crazy'.
 * Penny is the only member of the main set of characters whose last name has not been spoken or revealed, but Bill Prady has said it eventually will be. It will probably be revealed at some point after her and Leonard's marriage.
 * In "Pilot," Penny claims to be a vegetarian, but will eat fish and the occasional steak.
 * Penny often smells like either vanilla (because she wears the oil) or cheesecake (because she works at The Cheesecake Factory). Sheldon has also stated in "The Decoupling Fluctuation" that she uses green, apple-scented shampoo, insisting that she switch back to that from coconut.
 * Penny's acquaintance Christy could be a reference to Kaley Cuoco's time on Charmed. Penny was also the name of the witches' grandmother. The reference may also apply to Penny's father's name, Wyatt.
 * Her beliefs in psychics, ghosts, astrology, voodoo, and other 'superstitions' (but not healing crystals) may be also be a reference to Kaley Cuoco's time on Charmed.
 * Penny is very similar to Paige Michalchuk from Degrassi.
 * Both were the most popular girls in high school, they're Caucasian blondes, their personalities are similar, and they have a tendency to refer to people by a given nickname (Penny calls people "sweetie" while Paige calls people "hun").
 * Furthermore, Penny occasionally shows hints of bisexuality, while Paige is confirmed to be bisexual.
 * Penny eats Chinese food with a fork and double-dips her egg rolls (unappealing attributes, according to Sheldon).
 * In "The Staircase Implementation", it is revealed that Penny was almost a teenage mother.
 * Penny is often kindhearted and shows empathy toward others, but can become quite fierce when provoked. She has yelled at Sheldon, Raj, and Howard when they annoy her too much, and Leonard when she's angry at him.
 * When under pain medication, Penny exhibits some of Sheldon's behaviors.
 * Penny has an amazing sense of smell.
 * Penny believes in psychics, ghosts, astrology, voodoo, and other 'superstitions', but not healing crystals.
 * Penny went to community college, but dropped out for unspecified reasons. She goes back near the beginning of the sixth season, taking one history course. By the middle of the season, she is also taking an acting class, and at the beginning of season 7, she is taking a psychology class as well.
 * Every member of the gang (except Stuart and Emily) have seen Penny with black eye(s).
 * All of the guys first saw her with a black eye in "The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition" (S02E19)
 * Amy and Bernadette first saw Penny with two black eyes in "The Parking Spot Escalation" (S06E09).
 * A running gag of the show involves Sheldon knocking on Penny's door and saying her name after every three knocks. He repeats this statement thrice or until she answers the door.
 * Penny often resorts to freeloading. When Sheldon's mom pointed out her disapproval of a top (shirt) belonging to Penny, she said that she had received free drinks by wearing that top. It is also known that, while she was dating Leonard, she never paid for her movie tickets. She also gets free meals from hanging with the guys since her portions were always paid by Leonard; she said they were loans, but she knew Leonard would not ask her to pay it back. She also gets free internet by using Sheldon and Leonard's wi-fi -- leading Sheldon to regularly change the password to ones which accuse her of freeloading.
 * She turned down Sheldon's offer for a date (although Sheldon only asked her to make Amy jealous) as Penny was the only other woman that Sheldon knew well.
 * Penny was a bully in high school, making fun of a girl with a stutter and taping another girl up and leaving her out in a corn field until the next morning; she (along with the entire Zangen staff) would later become subjected to Bernadette's bullying ways. Being friends with Bernadette and Amy was her redemption for her mean girl ways. Even marrying Leonard was also part of her redemption. She even apologized to the girl she bullied in high school. It's never confirmed if the girl (now woman) accepted it on the phone.
 * Penny is remarkably adept at games in general, excelling at Halo, Age of Conan, and chess, checkmating Leonard on her first try (though the latter may have been because, as Sheldon has pointed out, Leonard is terrible at chess).
 * Penny owns a red 1980's Volkswagen Cabriolet Mk1 convertible car. Featured in several episodes, the car appears to be in a bad condition, which is not helped by Penny, who pays no heed to the warning lights of the car. While sitting in her car, Sheldon will continuously remind her that the 'check engine' warning light is on, an action that irritates Penny tremendously. Penny is a very bad driver: in "The Guitarist Amplification", a point of argument between Penny and Leonard is when Penny finds out that Leonard complains about her driving behind her back. Later in the episode, she runs a stop sign without even noticing it, and then, when Leonard mentions it, she looks back to find it, and Leonard, panicking, shouts "EYES ON THE ROAD, EYES ON THE ROAD!" She had gotten a car from Leonard in "The Friendship Turbulence" when her car broke down and she could not afford to fix it.
 * When Penny is shocked, she bats her eyelashes several times while considering a reaction.
 * Over the course of the series, Penny has exhibited traits of alcoholism. She is often seen drinking wine or other harder beverages while in her apartment, both alone and in the presence of her friends. She often seems to use wine as a means to deal with her issues. She will many times use this method on her friends as well to help them deal with their problems, most notably when she realized alcoholic drinks are able to help Raj overcome his selective mutism, or to help Sheldon overcome his stage fright.
 * She often says "OMG" or "Oh My God" when shocked, to the annoyance of Sheldon.
 * Despite Amy's admiration for Penny, she does realize her limitations in her intelligence and her acting career.
 * In "The Scavenger Vortex", no one wanted Penny on their team because she was a "liability".
 * Penny thinks that the wedding chapels in Las Vegas perform fake weddings.
 * Penny was unknowingly married to Zack Johnson.
 * In "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency", when Sheldon was dressing her, due to her dislocated shoulder, he had to put her hurt arm into the sleeve. He grabbed what he thought was her arm, but was actually her breast.
 * It was discovered by Sheldon that Penny has a Chinese character tattooed on her right butt cheek. She believes it to signify "courage", but Sheldon reads it as "soup".
 * Though Wyatt (Penny's father) has been featured in the show, "The Maternal Capacitance" references the name of Penny's father to be called "Bob".
 * So far Penny has been the only person in The Social Group to witness a Shamy kiss onscreen until Shamy's wedding.
 * In the count of the number of proposals to each other, Penny has three, Leonard has three through the time they got engaged.
 * She is called "Blondie" by Leslie Winkle.
 * It is rumored that Lisa Kudrow will be cast as Penny's mother. (Not true; CBS announced in July 2016 that Katey Sagal has been cast as her mother, Susan, and will be seen in the Season 10 premiere.)
 * Penny makes a smart decision and tells Leonard that they could get married. Penny also proposes for them to elope to Vegas when they can't get around to setting a wedding date.
 * By the end of the eighth season, Howard is the only guy who hasn't seen Penny naked, though he saw her topless when viewing her movie "Serial Ape-ist".
 * Leonard had prepared vows for their wedding ceremony; however, Penny winged it with "You've Got a Friend in Me".
 * Penny owned a pet pig called Moondance which lived happily on the farm in Nebraska until Wyatt drove a tractor and rotivator over it.
 * Penny was one of the gang that married Howard and Bernadette, while Bernadette married Leonard and Penny at their wedding redo ceremony.
 * Bernadette, Raj, Leonard, Penny and Amy are the only characters of the social group/main cast whose parents have both been seen on-camera - Sheldon's father died when Sheldon was a child, Howard's fatherabandoned him and his mother when Howard was eleven, Stuart's mother and father have been mentioned and are both alive, Emily's father has been mentioned and it is not known if he is dead or alive and there has been no appearance or mention of Emily's mother or Leslie's mother and father to date.
 * According to a July 2016 article posted on the TBBT Facebook page, we will meet Penny's mother and brother in the Season 10 premiere. Her mother, Susan, will be played by actress Katey Sagal (who played Kaley Cuoco's mother on 8 Simple Rules), while her brother, Randall, will be played by actor Jack McBrayer(30 Rock). According to the article, Susan is "stressed out and neurotic from a life dealing with her troubled—yet cheerful—son," who, as has been mentioned numerous times, is a drug dealer and ex-con.
 * There has been no mention or showing of Penny's college education since "The Relationship Diremption". It's also unclear if she ever finished at all after re-enrolling in Season 6.
 * In "The Platonic Permutation", Leonard read Penny's journal and revealed everything in it that he learned about her:
 * Penny's birthday is December 2nd.
 * When Penny was growing up she had a dog named Pepper.
 * The street that Penny's family house and farm was on was Perkins Street.
 * The last four digits of Penny's Social Security Number are 7, 6, 2, 1.
 * Penny's favorite Spice Girl was Baby Spice.
 * Penny's favorite *NSYNC band member was Justin.
 * Penny did not have a favorite member of the Backstreet Boys because she loved *NSYNC.
 * Sheldon is afraid to wake her before 11 a.m. because Penny has an "I'll punch you in the throat" rule if he does this.
 * Penny is right-handed.
 * Penny is a vegetarian, except for fish and the occasional steak, and she loves steak.
 * Penny loves the series "Sex and the City".
 * Penny is so far the only main character yet to have her middle name, or her maiden name (her last name before she married Leonard) revealed.
 * Penny is the only one of the original five main characters of the show to be absent in an episode; two in fact due to a real broken leg.
 * She has a tattoo of Cookie Monster.
 * In "The Procreation Calculation", Penny decided not to have kids and Leonard is upset at first, but respect her wishes. They both decide to both cool uncle and aunt to Howard and Bernadette kids, Sheldon and Amy's kids and Leonard's nephew and niece. But maybe she will change her mind at the end of the show and will want kids.
 * While it has been sometimes said that Leonard and Penny have nothing in common, this is not totally true. There actually are several things they have in common which have rarely or never been mentioned.
 * They each have one brother and one sister and they are both are apparently the middle child, while their respective sisters are the older child and their respective brothers are the younger child.
 * They are the second born child of their respective parents (possibly).
 * They had issues with the opposite-gender parent while growing up.
 * They are the love of each other's life
 * Their careers are in some ways similar; While Leonard is a smart, brilliant and successful scientist and physicist and well-educated and accomplished academic, his work in experimental physics somehow appears to mirror Penny's average education status and her pharmaceutical sales career in which she has often had to flirt with doctors to make sales. This makes it similar due to Leonard's work being sometimes derivative and his friends having more accomplishments, as well as him being the least successful of his family.