Who is Howard Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory?

Show

The Big Bang Theory

Played by

Simon Helberg

First episode

“Pilot”Season 1, Episode 1, aired September 24, 2007

Role

Main cast

Network

CBS

Occupation

Aerospace engineer and astronaut

Show run

2007 to 2019

Also known as

Howard Joel Wolowitz, Howie, Froot Loops, Wolowitz

Howard Wolowitz is a Caltech aerospace engineer who builds equipment for NASA and, for years, lives with his loud, doting mother. Played by Simon Helberg, he starts as the group's sleazy would-be ladies' man and grows into one of its most devoted husbands and fathers.

On The Big Bang Theory, Howard Wolowitz's story runs through Bernadette Rostenkowski (Wife), Raj Koothrappali (Best Friend), Leonard Hofstadter (Friend), Sheldon Cooper (Friend), and Stuart Bloom (Housemate).

Who is Howard Wolowitz?

Howard is an aerospace engineer at Caltech with a master's degree from MIT, and the only one of the four guys without a doctorate, a fact Sheldon never lets him forget. He is Jewish, grew up in Pasadena, and for the early seasons still lives with his mother, Debbie, whose booming voice is heard far more often than she is seen.

He is best friends with Raj, and the two are nearly inseparable. Howard meets the pilot audience by trying out a series of terrible pickup lines on Penny, which sets up his early reputation as the group's most shameless flirt.

Personality and comedy

Howard is the group's showman. He does impressions, performs magic tricks, plays instruments, and dresses in a signature style of bright turtlenecks, tight pants, and big belt buckles. His shouted conversations with his mother, each yelling from a different room, became one of the show's best-known running gags.

The show gradually turns Howard from a creep into a sympathetic family man. He is still quick with a jab at Sheldon or Raj, but marriage to Bernadette, and later fatherhood, reveal a sincere and surprisingly emotional side.

Key storylines

In season three, Penny sets Howard up with her coworker Bernadette. They seem to have nothing in common until they bond over their overbearing mothers, and Howard proposes in season four. In season five NASA selects him to fly to the International Space Station as a payload specialist, and he and Bernadette marry on the roof of their apartment building just before he launches. Along the way he gets stuck with the unwanted astronaut nickname Froot Loops.

In season eight, Howard's mother dies suddenly in her sleep while visiting Florida, a storyline written after her voice actress, Carol Ann Susi, died. Howard and Bernadette later have two children: a daughter, Halley, born in season ten, and a son, Neil Michael, born in season eleven.

Behind the scenes

Simon Helberg played Howard for all 12 seasons. Like Howard, who plays the piano well and loves to perform, Helberg is a gifted musician, and the show gave Howard plenty of songs and stage moments. Howard's mother was voiced by Carol Ann Susi from the first season until her death in 2014, and she appeared on screen only in brief glimpses.

Howard's space mission also brought real-world science into the show, with real NASA astronaut Mike Massimino playing himself as one of Howard's crewmates and the source of the dreaded Froot Loops nickname.

Howard Wolowitz: frequently asked questions

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