{alltv} Bialik puts her neuroscience degree to work as 'Big Bang' geek

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Mayim Bialik gets quirky characters.

The former child actress, 34, is back on television playing the nerdy neurobiologist girlfriend of Sheldon (Jim Parsons) on the CBS hit comedy The Big Bang Theory (Thursdays, 8 ET/PT).

And, she is happy to stand out.

"The industry has sort of swung to a pretty kind of classic standard, I guess, for females. I'm very happy to be who I am and look the way I do. But you know, you need a role that allows for that (look), and it's hard," she explains. "Our industry is full of a lot of women who are models and who bring to the table a very different first-glance kind of impression. So, a part like this for someone who doesn't fit the classic mold of what's Hollywood beauty, it's a gift. It's really a gift."

Bialik is no stranger to unusual characters. For five seasons starting in 1991, she played the title role in the sitcom Blossom, which revolved around the life of a schoolgirl who is the only female in a single-parent home comprised of her musician father and two brothers. Blossom's outgoing personality and funky sense of style endeared her to audiences, making the show a hit, but at the end of the show's run, Bialik put her acting career on hold.

She says the break was inevitable. During the show's final season, "sitcom actresses from family shows weren't being offered leading roles in feature films," Bialik explains. "And I think taking a break was probably the smartest thing I could have done. When you look at the industry now, and you see film actors doing sitcoms and sitcom actors getting parts in features, that was not happening." And, so while she "would have loved to do film when I was 19 and finished Blossom," not many opportunities existed for the transition.

So Bialik proceeded with plans for college, where she completed undergraduate and graduate studies in neuroscience at UCLA. She has no regrets. "For me, it was smart," to take a break for college, she says. "Personally, I come from an immigrant family where you go to college no matter what so this was the no matter what. Oh, I have my own TV show? I'm gonna go to college now."

Turns out that academic experience gives her street cred when it comes to playing Big Bang's resident neurobiologist. "It wasn't until my second episode that they revealed that she was a neurobiologist. In those science circles, there is a distinction between neurobiology and plain old neuroscience but for the purposes of everyone's knowledge, it's pretty darn close to what my specialty was."

Bialik's experience helps her connect with her character's persona as well. "I relate to Amy's scientific analysis of the world. I like to think that I'm more socially skilled, but I think that what appeals to me about her and about Sheldon is that they see the world in a very scientific way and there's not a lot of room for fuss or muss," she says about the quirky couple. "I've known people like this and not only in my clinical experience or my training. We've all known this kind of personality and there's nothing wrong with them. They just don't do things the way other people want them to, but I think that's sort of the beauty of these characters: they don't care."

Bialik, however, does care and feels a sense of purpose when it comes to her Hollywood career.

"I'm paid to help you escape whatever you're experiencing for 24 minutes a week, but I also get to escape the reality that we're all forced to live in," Bialik says describing what she enjoys about acting. "I don't mean that to say there's something I'm running from, but it takes a certain personality to want to be someone else for other people. We all serve a purpose. I'm not saving the world one sitcom at a time but everybody in our society has a function and right now mine is to make people laugh."

Still, Bialik hasn't given up her academic ties entirely. "I enjoy the scientific process," she explains. "I especially like teaching, and that's originally where I thought I'd be. I still do get to teach. I teach chemistry and biology in our home school community for middle schoolers. I like sharing my knowledge of science. I especially like inspiring young women to see themselves as scientists. I never thought of science for girls. I think being a neuroscientist and getting to influence young girls especially is a nice gift."

As the mother of two young sons Miles, 5, and Frederick, 2, she does find it challenging to manage a home life and careers. But husband Michael Stone does his part.

"Yeah, a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old are difficult to juggle no matter what you do or don't do," she says. "My husband has made a life decision, or we made a life decision together, that he is home when I am not so that's the way that we sort of work it. We don't use a nanny or a sitter or anything like that so we're both exhausted. But, we're in a really nice home school community here in Los Angeles. Our life is really full so when I work, they do stuff together and do outings."

And she isn't complaining about having to juggle.

"I'm really grateful every day that I wake up that I have health insurance for the year," the actress explains. "I have two kids that I get to spend time with and have a job in an industry that can be very fickle and very uncertain."