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Melissa Ivy Rauch is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her role as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Rauch was born in Marlboro Township, New Jersey, the daughter of Susan and David Rauch.[2] She developed an interest in acting while attending Marlboro High School. Rauch has a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College. She is Jewish.
While studying, Rauch did stand-up comedy around Manhattan. In her one-woman show The Miss Education of Jenna Bush she portrayed the former President's daughter.
In 2009 Rauch began playing the recurring role of Bernadette, the girlfriend of Howard Wolowitz, in the third season of TV's The Big Bang Theory. The following season her character became Howard's fiancée and Rauch was promoted to a series regular. The characters married in the season five finale. In December 2011, Rauch was nominated as part of The Big Bang Theory cast for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Rauch has been a participant in VH1's Best Week Ever television show. Other acting credits include True Blood, on which she had a recurring role in 2010 as Summer, a girl who likes Hoyt, and The Office. Rauch also appeared on the American remake of the Australian TV series Kath & Kim. She also appeared in Wright v Wrong, Dirty Sexy Money, and in the film I Love You, Man.
Rauch is also part of the cast of the comedic stage show The Realest Real Housewives, alongside Casey Wilson, June Diane Raphael, Jessica St. Clair and Danielle Schneider. The show began running at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in 2011.
