Melissa Rauch

My mom has a very high-pitched voice, and there are some similarities between her and the voice I use on 'Big Bang,' although my mom has the Jersey accent, so I took that out. But the tone of the voice is very similar to my mother's.

I was a theater dork in high school and did all the plays. My theater teacher in high school, Janet Spahr, was absolutely incredible and mentored me throughout school. She taught me a lot about relying on my instincts.

The thrill of a photo-realist painter is if you get really close to the painting, it looks just like a photograph. Whereas in my case, if you get close to my paintings, they totally fall apart - so I'm about as far from a photo-realist as it gets.