Penny

Lore & Background

Penny is from Omaha, Nebraska. She dropped out of community college prior to the start of the series, making her the only regular character with less education than Howard Wolowitz, who has a master's degree. In season 5, she returns to college, taking a psychology class and initially hiding it from Leonard but eventually telling the group. She later takes a history class in season 6. She initially performs terribly in her college classes. It is revealed in later seasons that Penny has continued her education, taking a psychology class. A recurring theme throughout the series is Penny's ongoing financial problems and poverty. In "The Financial Permeability" (season 2, episode 14), she finds herself behind on her bills and borrows money from Sheldon. Other references include her once attempting to pay for her electric bill using a Starbucks gift card, an apology note, and a photo of her in underwear. In season 7, episode 23 ("The Gorilla Dissolution"), her car engine fails and she receives a new car from Leonard.

In Their Own Story

Penny's questionable driving ability and failure to maintain her vehicle are acknowledged throughout the series. She is known to ignore her check engine light and has left her passenger side wing mirror in a parking lot somewhere in Hollywood after trying to park her car. She also hit a Mercedes in a parking lot and knocked the side-view mirror off Bernadette's car, not leaving a note in either incident. In the fifth-season episode "The Speckerman Recurrence", Penny is revealed to have unknowingly been a bully while in school. She attempts to make amends with a classmate she tormented, and although she does her best, she sees little success. Another recurring personality trait is her ability to consume large amounts of alcohol, especially wine. In "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition", while spending the evening with Bernadette and Amy, Penny observes that they have finished the bottle of wine, and when Bernadette and Amy point out that they consumed only half a glass and no wine at all, respectively, Penny snaps, "Okay, don't judge me!" At the end of that episode, she passes out while the three of them play Twister, and when Bernadette initially fails to revive her, she says "Penny, we're out of wine", which manages to wake Penny.

Reader's Guide

Penny has full confidence in pseudoscientific concepts such as horoscopes, psychics, and Voodoo, which has led to repeated mocking from both Sheldon and Leonard (primarily the former) along with criticisms of their accuracy. In contrast to the rest of the group, Penny is neither well-educated in a formal sense nor savvy in a specific field and can appear somewhat lacking in knowledge, but she has great social skills and is more streetwise and, in some ways, more confident and resourceful than her neighbors. She is well informed about popular culture. She is messy domestically, disorganized, and, in some respects, irresponsible (both personally and financially). When she is expressing feelings of anger or frustration, other characters have compared her to The Hulk, a "rabid wolverine", and "killer robots". A number of episodes depict Penny's assimilation of nerd culture through her time spent with the men, and she has quoted some science fiction shows (like Star Trek) and movies (Star Wars). After Sheldon introduces her to the online role-playing game Age of Conan, Penny becomes addicted to the point of ignoring her friends, hygiene, general appearance and job, pestering Sheldon incessantly for gaming advice. She overcomes her addiction when she realizes she has agreed to go on a virtual date within the game with Howard.

Did You Know?

• In the original unaired pilot, the female lead was called Katie and was played by Amanda Walsh; test audiences reacted negatively, finding her too mean.
• Marisa Tomei, Tara Reid, Elizabeth Berkley, and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe were all considered for the role of Penny before Kaley Cuoco was cast.
• Penny once attempted to pay her electric bill using a Starbucks gift card, an apology note, and a photo of her in underwear.
• In season two, Sheldon wrote a brief summary of Leonard's experiment for Penny to memorize so she could talk to Leonard about his job.
• Penny has demonstrated fluency in Ubbi dubbi by having a secret conversation with Amy Farrah Fowler in front of Sheldon and Leonard.