Leonard Hofstadter

Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, PhD
Johnny Galecki as Dr. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter
First appearance	"Pilot"
Portrayed by	Johnny Galecki
IQ	173
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Title	Ph.D.
Occupation	Experimental physicist
Family	Beverly Hofstadter (mother), Michael (younger brother), unnamed father and sister
Nationality	American

Dr. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, PhD., is a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Johnny Galecki.

Leonard shares an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons). They live across the hallway from Penny (Kaley Cuoco).

Leonard has been described as the straight man of the series. The writers have toyed with a romance between him and neighbor Penny with their unresolved sexual tension being a major force for drama.

Johnny Galecki's character is named after actor/producer Sheldon Leonard.

Personality

Originally from New Jersey, Leonard is a Caltech experimental physicist who shares an apartment with Sheldon Cooper in Pasadena, California. He is usually seen wearing his characteristic black framed glasses, neutral colored sweat jackets, brown trousers, and physics-themed t-shirts.

Although Leonard feels at home with his geek colleagues, he wants more socially. He is instantly captivated by the presence of Penny, and from the beginning sets to date her.

In the early episodes, Leonard is reluctant to let Penny know about his recreational activities (such as Klingon Boggle) as he does not like to be seen as a nerd by her. While certainly a nerd by most definitions, he is much less socially awkward than Sheldon (who is unable to grasp social norms), and even Howard (who is too "creepy") and Raj (who can't talk to women). Leonard can also play the cello. As seen in an episode, he and Leslie practice their instruments then go to have sex.

Despite his attempts to reject his nerd status, Leonard owns, among other things, Star Wars hygiene products, an expansive Superman comic book collection and a Battlestar Galactica Colonial warrior's flight suit. Early in the series, Leonard tried to get rid of his collectables to show maturity and impress Penny. However, he changed his mind when he saw Penny was already dating another man.

Having lived with Sheldon for several years, Leonard knows him best, and is obligated to explain Sheldon's behavior and serve as a mediator between him and other people in many situations. For instance, when Penny and Sheldon engaged in fierce dispute, Leonard gave Penny the phone number of Sheldon's mother so she would call her son and scold him for his behavior, thus ending the fight.

Leonard's primary health concern is his lactose intolerance; he avoids eating even small amounts of dairy products, including cheese, yoghurt and butter, for fear of passing gas. Leonard also wears glasses because of myopia, and practically cannot see without them. In one occasion, when Leonard's glasses were broken at the movie theater, he had to go to his apartment for his backup glasses. He was aided remotely by Howard and Raj to navigate through the living room by using a helmet camera. At various points in the show, Sheldon also says that Leonard suffers from sleep apnea and gets carsick unless he sits in the front seat.

Family

All of the members of Leonard's family are accomplished scientists.

His mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has a personality almost identical to Sheldon's, including strict speech patterns, lack of social conventions, and attention to detail, and is principally responsible for the difficult childhood Leonard had. Due to his mother's views, Leonard never celebrated his birthday when he was a child, and when she visited him she was not impressed with Leonard's unoriginal research. Leonard mentioned to Penny that when he was young he built a "hugging machine" in order to compensate for the lack of affection from his mother. Beverly also mentioned that Leonard's brother and sister are more successful in their respective fields than he is. Leonard's brother, Michael, is a Harvard law professor and is engaged to the youngest appellate court judge in New Jersey history, and Leonard's sister is a cutting-edge medical researcher working with gibbons to cure diabetes.

Leonard's father is briefly mentioned as an anthropologist. Sheldon pointed that Leonard's middle name, "Leakey", comes from famed archaeologist Louis Leakey, with whom Leonard's father had worked.

Little is known about Leonard's extended family, however, a few references have been made; in the first episode, Sheldon and Leonard discuss Leonard's grandmother who had visited them on Thanksgiving the year before. She has Alzheimer's and apparently "had an episode" during her visit which resulted in her stripping off her clothes and carving the turkey in the nude. On Beverly's first visit, she tells Leonard that his uncle Floyd has died, which greatly upsets him (according to him, Floyd was the only family member he really liked). Leonard also has several other uncles, which Sheldon says are all very bald.

Work

With an IQ of 173, Leonard was 24 years old when he received his Ph.D.

Leonard works as an experimental physicist. His work often includes the use of lasers, such as a helium-neon laser or free electron laser, and his research topics have varied from Bose-Einstein condensates and foundations of quantum mechanics to soft cosmic rays at sea level and development of novel rocket propellants. Leonard designs experiments in order to prove theories but, according to the cynical and egotistical theorist Sheldon, his work is mostly derivative and thus unimportant.

His miscalculations in loading the top secret propellant for Howard's rocket led to the elevator in the apartment building where he lives being out of service for several years and his attempts to disprove the existence of dark matter were made moot by the work of another physicist. Yet, he resolved the latter by helping to solidify proof of the hypothetical matter's existence with a photomultiplier, was invited as keynote speaker to a topical conference by the Institute of Experimental Physics for his successful research on supersolids and has showed diverse knowledge of theoretical physics.

Relationships

Leonard is usually shy around women but, unlike Sheldon, he actually cares about having a girlfriend.

Leonard became attracted to Penny within seconds of spotting her, and announced to Sheldon "our babies will be smart and beautiful". His infatuation with Penny becomes the major force that drives the series during the first seasons.

Beside Penny, Leonard has been involved with only a few other women. One of Leonard's former girlfriends that is mentioned in several occasions is Joyce Kim. Although she has only recently appeared in person, many times Leonard's friends recalled that they were together for only 27 days, after which Joyce, later revealed to be a spy, defected to North Korea.

Initially, after feeling that Penny was not for him, Leonard turned his attention to fellow scientist Leslie Winkle. The first time Leonard asked Leslie out he was rejected. His further relationships with her proved to be only short-lived casual sex encounters.

At the season one finale, Leonard finally managed to ask Penny out, and they had their first date. Subsequently, they broke up because Penny felt she wasn't as smart as Leonard would like.

Thereafter, Leonard began a stable relationship with Dr. Stephanie Barnett. Although the relationship went well, even earning Sheldon's approval, Leonard felt uncomfortable with Stephanie moving in with him, and they broke up.

In another occasion, during the visit of Leonard's mother, Leonard and Penny came very close to having sex, but he ruined the moment by talking about their childhood issues with his mother and her father, respectively.

In the second season finale, when the guys were going on a 3-month scientific expedition, Penny finally showed interest in Leonard, but kept her feelings a secret. In the third season premiere, Leonard and Penny finally started a romantic relationship, and made love for the first time.

In the third season finale, Leonard raped Penny. Penny came to him drunk and wanted to have sex. He had sex with her. That is rape.