John Mark "Johnny" Galecki (born April 30, 1975, Bree, Belgium) is an American actor of Polish and Irish descent best known for his work in Roseanne and as the character Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Career 3 Personal Life 4 The Big Bang Theory 5 Film 5.1 Television 6 Trivia

Early LifeEdit

Galecki was born in Bree, Belgium, to American parents of Polish, Irish, and Italian descent. His mother, Mary Lou (née Noon), was a mortgage consultant, and his father, Richard Galecki, was a member of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Belgium at the time and also worked as a rehabilitation teacher. He has a younger brother, Nick, whom he describes as a mechanical genius in the automotive industry, and a younger sister, Allison. Galecki grew up in Oak Park, Illinois.

During an interview with New Zealand radio station ZM, Galecki jokingly recalled his childhood relationship with his mother. As a child, he was well known for making up long, epic stories and tales. In such situations his mother used to make him play the "quiet game" where he had to see how long he could go without talking. He also recalled that despite being a loving mother, she was also very tough. One phrase she would lovingly use was, "I love you, now get out."

CareerEdit

Galecki made his acting debut in the 1987 CBS miniseries Murder Ordained with JoBeth Williams and future Roseanne co-star John Goodman. In 1989 Galecki portrayed Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. One of his best known roles was as David Healy (first introduced as Kevin Healy) in the U.S. sitcom Roseanne. Galecki was cast in the 1997 summerslasher I Know What You Did Last Summer and the 1998 dark comedy The Opposite of Sex. In the year 2000, Galecki reunited with Opposite of Sex director Don Roos, who cast him in Bounce.

Galecki continued his film streak with roles in Suicide Kings and brief bit parts in high-profile films such as Bean and a minor supporting part in Vanilla Sky. Galecki played a young delinquent in A Family Torn Apart, a TV movie based on a true story about a serial killer.

Galecki appeared in the first-season episode, "Stole Beer from a Golfer", of My Name Is Earl as a golfer.

He played a character named Trouty on TBS's sitcom My Boys. He also played the half-brother of the main characters, sisters Hope Shanowski and Faith Fairfield, in the TV sitcom Hope & Faith. In late 2006/early 2007, Galecki starred in the Broadway play The Little Dog Laughed as Alex, a male prostitute. In this role, he was required to do a full-frontal nude scene, the first of his acting career. "At its core, the play is about what we all sacrifice to be successful, whatever our careers or goals," he explains. Galecki originated the role earlier in 2006 at Second Stage Theatre. The widely popular comedy by Douglas Carter Beane had a successful run at Second Stage and moved to the Cort Theatre. The play closed on February 18, 2007, with Galecki taking home a 2007 Theater World Award for his performance.

Galecki currently plays the part of Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, which debuted September 24, 2007. He works alongside two of his former Roseanne cast members, Sara Gilbert, who during his role as David Healy played the role of his longtime girlfriend and later his wife, Darlene Conner, as well as Laurie Metcalf, formerly cast as the role of Roseanne Barr's fictionalized character's sister Jackie. Both have since appeared as recurring characters. Galecki is a cellist and has played cello on the show.

Galecki appeared briefly in the 2008 superhero comedy Hancock, alongside Will Smith and Jason Bateman. He also appears in the music video for the Dave Matthews Band song "Satellite".

In July 2011 Galecki played himself on three episodes of Entourage.

Personal LifeEdit

Galecki owns 360 acres of land in Santa Margarita, California. There are vineyards on his property, and also a log cabin. He is also a vegetarian.

While working on The Big Bang Theory, Galecki dated co-star Kaley Cuoco for two years. They kept their relationship private until they broke up.

In February 2012, it was revealed that Galecki had been dating actress Kelli Garner since 2011.

The Big Bang TheoryEdit

Main article: Leonard Hofstadter

Leonard is an experimental physicist from Caltech who rooms with Sheldon Cooper in their rundown apartment building in apartment 4A, in which the elevator always seems to be out of order due to both of them causing an explosion in it, located in Pasadena, California. He keeps a whiteboard in their living room on which he works on theoretical particle physics. While Sheldon's genius seems to be focused primarily in math and science, Leonard is indicated to be proficient in literature and history as well as the sciences; he is able to solve a woman's crossword puzzle in seconds, ^[1] the answers being mostly literature based, e.g. Vladimir Nabokov. It is also suggested that Leonard's IQ is not as high as Sheldon's; Sheldon scoffs at Leonard's whiteboard theories as common enough to be "scribbled on the wall of

every men's room at MIT". Most of the equations on Leonard and Sheldon'sboards feature complex higher mathematics, such as virtual particles in QM, or series of Riemann zeta functions. He is originally from New Jersey and is usually seen wearing his characteristic black framed glasses, neutral colored sweat jackets, brown trousers, and physics-themed t-shirts.

FilmEdit

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1987	Murder Ordained	Doug Rule	TV movie
1988	A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon	Toby Reardon
1989	Prancer	Billy Quinn
	National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation	Russell 'Rusty' Griswold
1990	Blind Faith	John Marshall	TV movie
	In Defense of a Married Man	Eric	TV movie
1991	Backfield in Motion	Tim Seavers	TV movie
1993	A Family Torn Apart	Daniel Hannigan	TV movie
1994	Without Consent	Marty	TV movie
1996	Murder at My Door	Teddy McNair	TV movie
1997	Bean	Stingo Wheelie
	Suicide Kings	Ira Reder
	I Know What You Did Last Summer	Max Neurick
1998	The Opposite of Sex	Jason Bock
2000	Playing Mona Lisa	Arthur
	Bounce	Seth
2001	Morgan's Ferry	Darcy
	Vanilla Sky	Peter Brown
2003	Bookies	Jude
2004	Chrystal	Barry
	White Like Me	Marcus	Short film
2005	Happy Endings	Miles	Uncredited role
2007	Who You Know	David	Short film
2008	Hancock	Jeremy
2009	Table for Three	Ted	Direct-to-video release
2011	In Time	Borel

TelevisionEdit

Year(s)	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Hardball	Unknown role	Episode: "The Hunt for Honus Wagner"
1991	Blossom	Jason	Episode: "Sex, Lies and Teenagers"
1990–1991	American Dreamer	Danny Nash	17 episodes.
1993	Civil Wars	Student accused of cheating	Episode: "Split Ends"
1992–1997	Roseanne	David Healy	92 episodes. Nominated for four and winner of one Young Artist Award.
2000	Batman Beyond	Knux (voice)	Episode: "April Moon"
	The Norm Show	Dale Stockhouse	Episode: "Norm vs. Youth: Part 1" Episode: "Norm vs. Youth: Part 2"
2004	LAX	Leland Pressman	Episode: "Finnegan Again, Begin Again"
2005	My Name Is Earl	Scott	Episode: "Stole Beer from a Golfer"
	Hope & Faith	Jay	Episode: "Blood Is Thicker Than Daughter" Episode: "The Restaurant" Episode: "Jay Date"
2006-2007	My Boys	Trouty	Episode: "Clubhouse Poison" Episode: "Take One for the Team" Episode: "Ethics"
2009	Family Guy	Leonard Hofstadter	Episode: "Business Guy"
2007-present	The Big Bang Theory	Leonard Hofstadter	Starring role

TriviaEdit

• Johnny Galecki originally wished to cast as Sheldon, but this was taken by Jim Parsons, so he took the role of Leonard.