actress. She first came to attention for her role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom

8 Simple Rules. Cuoco later starred as Billie Jenkins on the final season of the supernatural

drama series Charmed. She has gained recognition for her role as Penny on the CBS comedy series

The Big Bang Theory for which she won a Critics' Choice Television Award. Cuoco has also appeared

in the films To Be Fat like Me, The Penthouse, and Hop.

Early life Cuoco was born in Camarillo, California, to

realtor Gary Carmine Cuoco and homemaker Layne Ann Wingate. Gary is of Italian descent while

Layne is of English and German descent. As a child, Cuoco was once a nationally ranked

amateur in tennis, a sport she took up when she was 3 years old; she stopped playing at

16 in 2002. Career

Cuoco made her first feature film appearance as the young Karin Carter in the 1995 action

thriller Virtuosity. In 1999, Cuoco appeared on the CBS sitcom

Ladies Man and in 2000 she portrayed former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick in the

TV movie Growing Up Brady as well as starring in the Disney Channel Original Movie Alley

Cats Strike. In September 2002, Cuoco began a starring role as Bridget Hennessy on the

ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules. Bridget was the oldest child, despite Cuoco being 6 years

younger than Amy Davidson, who played her younger sister. Due to low ratings, ABC cancelled

the series on May 17, 2005.

In addition to the final season of 8 Simple Rules, Cuoco had starring roles on the NBC

miniseries 10.5, the ABC Family original movie Crimes of Fashion, the independent film Debating

Robert Lee, and in the film The Hollow. She also voiced the character of Brandy Harrington,

a 14-year-old anthropomorphic mixed-breed dog, on the Disney Channel cartoon Brandy

and Mr. Whiskers. Cuoco voiced the character of Kirstee Smith in Bratz from 2004 to 2005.

In the eighth season of the TV show Charmed, Cuoco appeared as Billie Jenkins, a powerful

young witch with the powers of telekinesis and projection. Executive producer Brad Kern

stated that Cuoco's character was initially brought in as a possible spin-off.

In September 2007, Cuoco began starring in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, playing

Penny, a Cheesecake Factory employee and aspiring actress who lives across the hall from scientists

Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper. Prior to the 2010–2011 season, she earned $60,000

an episode for the series, the same as her co-stars. In 2010, the cast negotiated a raise

for each actor to make $200,000 per episode. On September 13, 2010, she broke her leg in

a horse-riding accident and missed two episodes of the series. In late October 2012, Cuoco

enlisted the help of her sister Briana to organize a flash mob on the set of the show,

in which she and the cast and crew surprised the studio audience by suddenly lip-synching

and dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe". A video of the event was posted

on YouTube and became a viral success. A clip from the performance was also played during

Cuoco's January 8, 2013 appearance on the late night talk show Conan. As of August 2013,

Cuoco and her co-stars from The Big Bang Theory Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons, each earn

$325,000 an episode. Cuoco starred in the Lifetime film To Be Fat

Like Me, which premiered on January 8, 2007. She played a minor role in the Prison Break

episodes "The Message" and "Chicago", as well as starring in the comedy horror spoof Killer

Movie in 2008. She also appeared in the 2010 film The Penthouse. In 2011, Cuoco appeared

in Allure magazine's annual "Naked Truth" feature. That same year, she appeared in the

films Hop and The Last Ride. She was also chosen to host the Teen Choice Awards in 2011,

as well as the People's Choice Awards in 2012 and 2013. Cuoco became a regular on priceline.com

commercials as the daughter of William Shatner's character.

Personal life While working on The Big Bang Theory, Cuoco

privately dated co-star Johnny Galecki for roughly two years until December 2009 while

their characters on the show were also dating. She told CBS Watch in September 2010 that

they have remained on good terms since ending their relationship. She became engaged to

addiction specialist Josh Resnik in October 2011, but they had ended their engagement

by March 2012. Cuoco subsequently became engaged to professional tennis player Ryan Sweeting

in September 2013, after three months of dating. They married on December 31, 2013, in Santa

Susana, California. Filmography

Film Television

Awards References

External links Kaley Cuoco at the Internet Movie Database

Kaley Cuoco at Rotten Tomatoes