From her early days as the young version of Bette Midler's character in Pumpkinhead to her award-winning role as Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, Mayim Bialik is an actress with many strings to her bow. She's also an author, a scientist, and a mental health advocate. And as a guest speaker at namicon 2022, Bialik will share her personal experience as an aging adult while sharing insights from her neuroscience and neuropsychiatric training.
Mayim Chaya Bialik was born on December 12th, 1975 in San Diego, California. She is a second-generation Jewish American, and her grandparents emigrated from Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. She grew up as a Reform Jew and identifies as Modern Orthodox today. Her first name, Mayim, means water and her middle name, Chaya, shares the same root as chai, meaning life.
She earned a bachelor's degree from UCLA in neuroscience alongside minors in Hebrew and Jewish studies. And she went on to earn a Ph.D in neuroscience from Stanford University in 2007. Her dissertation looked at Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Prader-Willi syndrome.
During her tenure on The Big Bang Theory, Bialik has garnered many awards and nominations, including four Emmys and two Critics Choice awards. She recently signed on to star as Kat on the new FOX sitcom Call Me Kat, which is set to premiere later this year.
She's also a keen musician and has taken piano, bass guitar, trumpet, and harp lessons. The latter she learned for her role on The Big Bang Theory, so that she could play the song fragments she sings rather than miming to a pre-recorded track.
