WOMEN WE LOVE: Kaley Cuoco

With her pregnancy announcement and recent equestrian debacle, actress Kaley Cuoco has been popping up in the media quite a bit over the past few weeks.

Cuoco grew up in Camarillo, California. She got into acting in her early teens and appeared in a few minor guest roles before landing the role of Bridget in the CBS show "8 Simple Rules". From there, the young actress flourished as she took on the voice-acting role of Brandy in Brandy and "Mr. Whiskers" and Billie in the final season of "Charmed". In 2007, Cuoco booked her most famous role as Penny in "The Big Bang Theory", which ran for a whopping 12 seasons. Talk about job security!

Although it was a hard challenge to top such an iconic role, Cuoco seems to have been successful in her post-"The Big Band Theory" career. Cuoco launched her own production company, Yes, Norman Productions, in 2017, with the company’s first project ending up being "The Flight Attendant" on HBO Max. The show, which Cuoco both produced and starred in, really took off (pun intended) in 2020, earning 12 Emmy nominations to date (including 2 individial noms for Kaley herself) and currently has two seasons now streaming.

Kaley has another pretty sweet gig on HBO, as the voice of the iconic DC supervillain (or is she??) Harley Quinn in the animated series "Harley Quinn". The series has 3 seasons available to stream so far, and after a tense waiting period, the show was recently renewed for a 4th season. Whew!

The 36-year-old actress is full of stories and is never shy when it comes to sharing them. And her fans eat them up (how could you not? She’s adorable)! Recently, Cuoco has been sharing memories from her time on "The Big Bang Theory". In fact, she just came forward with a story about her scariest experience in all of the 12 years she worked on the show.

Cuoco is a skilled and practiced equestrian. However, she suffered a severe injury after her horse got spooked and crushed her leg nearly 10 years ago. Doctors were certain that her leg would need to be amputated, but she managed to be back on her feet (pun intended) within a week of surgery.

Fans were also shocked to recently learn that Cuoco was not the first choice to play Penny in "The Big Bang Theory". Although her presence on the show was an absolute staple in its success, the creators originally cast Jodi Lyn O’Keefe as Penny. O’Keefe was let go after shooting the pilot episode and the role was then given to... Amanda Walsh. After two failed attempts at casting the role of Penny, success was found in Kaley Cuoco’s performance.

On a happier note, Cuoco just shared a sweet moment on social media recently when she announced her pregnancy with boyfriend Tom Pelphrey.

Baby Cuoco is due sometime in 2023!