Christine Baranski

Christine Baranski plays Beverly Hofstadter in The Big Bang Theory. Beverly brings a clinical reserve to conversations in which Leonard would very much prefer some ordinary warmth. Baranski's precise delivery makes a mild observation sound devastating, and her scenes provide a sharply different kind of parental visit from Mary Cooper's.

Her television career includes Maryann Thorpe in Cybill, for which she won an Emmy, and lawyer Diane Lockhart in The Good Wife and The Good Fight. She also plays Agnes van Rhijn in The Gilded Age and appears as Dr. Nora in Frasier.

Baranski trained at Juilliard and won Tony Awards for The Real Thing and Rumors. Her film work includes Chicago, Mamma Mia! and The Birdcage. Comedy, drama and musicals all draw on the same exceptionally controlled delivery, though the characters using it can be very different.