Actress Mayim Bialik defied Hollywood stereotypes by not only playing brilliant, strong women on TV and in film, but also working as a neuroscientist in real life. Bialik’s first appearance, in the 1988 horror film Pumpkinhead, was quickly followed by recurring roles on MacGuyver and Beauty and the Beast, as well as in the 1988 tearjerker film Beaches. From 1990–1995, she starred on the sitcom Blossom. After the show’s cancellation, she studied neuroscience and Jewish studies at UCLA, earning her PhD in neuroscience in 2007 for her work on hypothalamic activity in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects cognitive development and the endocrine system. In 2011 she joined the cast of the Big Bang Theory, earning Emmy nominations for her portrayal of neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler in 2012, 2013, and 2014. A proponent of attachment parenting, Bialik published a parenting guide, Beyond the Sling, in 2012, as well as a cookbook, Mayim’s Vegan Table, in 2014.