Sheldon Cooper

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Sheldon and his fraternal twin sister, Missy, were born on February 26, 1980, at a Kmart in Galveston, Texas, and raised in Medford, a fictional small town in East Texas. His first word was 'hypotenuse'; he said this at age four. He was a child prodigy who entered college at the age of eleven, and at age fourteen he earned his first degree (a bachelor's). From then, he worked on his doctorate, was a visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, was the youngest person at the time to receive the Stevenson Award, and has appeared on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry A. The only member of his family to have actively encouraged his work in science was his maternal grandfather, whom he cherished and affectionately called 'Pop-Pop', and who died when Sheldon was five years old. His closest relative is his maternal grandmother whom he affectionately calls 'Meemaw', and who in turn calls him 'Moon Pie'.

In Their Own Story

The character of Sheldon Cooper was inspired by a computer programmer personally known to series co-creator Bill Prady. He and his friend Leonard Hofstadter are named in honor of actor/producer Sheldon Leonard, scientist Robert Hofstadter, and Nobel Prize Laureate Leon Cooper. Chuck Lorre originally intended Johnny Galecki to play the role, but Galecki thought he would be 'better suited' for the character of Leonard. Lorre said that when Jim Parsons auditioned for the role, he was 'so startlingly good' that he was asked to re-audition 'to make sure he hadn't gotten lucky'. For his portrayal, Parsons received widespread acclaim and won four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a TCA Award, and two Critics' Choice Television Awards. The character's childhood is the focus of Young Sheldon, in which he grows up as a child prodigy in Medford, Texas with his family: his twin sister Missy Cooper, his father George Cooper Sr., his older brother George Marshall Cooper Jr., his mother Mary Cooper, and his grandmother, Constance Tucker (also known as Connie or Meemaw).

Reader's Guide

Sheldon frequently states that he possesses an eidetic memory and an IQ of 187, although he claims his IQ cannot be accurately measured by normal tests. He possesses a mastery of various subjects such as physics, spectroscopy, chemistry, pharmacology, anatomy, physiology, zoology, microbiology, astronomy, cosmology, algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, economics, computers, software engineering, robotics/cybernetics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, history, anthropology, geography, linguistics, cryptography, forensics, vexillology (he hosts a webshow called Fun With Flags) and railroad engineering. He also shows great musical talent, knowing how to play the piano and the theremin and can sing with perfect pitch. He is uncomfortable with human physical contact and has mysophobia. He also has hemophobia and synesthesia, the latter being demonstrated when he described prime numbers as being red, twin primes as being pink and smelling like gasoline and Fudgesicles as tasting like the speed of light. In his mannerisms, Sheldon also shows symptoms associated with obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, as is suggested within the show itself by Amy in regard to how, whenever approaching the door of an occupied room, he must knock three times, then say the person's name, and must repeat this three times; this was revealed as a result of him seemingly walking in on his father with another woman when he was thirteen.

Did You Know?

• Sheldon's first word was 'hypotenuse', which he said at age four.
• He was born on February 26, 1980, at a Kmart in Galveston, Texas.
• He entered college at age eleven and earned his first degree (a bachelor's) at age fourteen.
• He was the youngest person at the time to receive the Stevenson Award.
• Co-creator Bill Prady has stated that Sheldon's character was neither conceived nor developed with regard to Asperger's, though Jim Parsons has said that in his opinion, Sheldon 'couldn't display more facets' of Asperger