"A four-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, Parsons has become a fan favorite for his role as Sheldon Cooper in THE BIG BANG THEORY. His performance has garnered him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and several People’s Choice Award nominations for Favorite TV Comedy Actor. In 2010 Parsons received the NAB Television Chairman’s Award, which honors significant breakthroughs in television. Additionally, he received the Broadcast Television Journalists Association’s Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series from the Critics’ Choice Television Awards. He has twice been nominated for the TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, winning the prize in 2009.
In 2017 Parsons produced and lent his voice as a narrator to the three-part docuseries “First in Human,” which aired on the Discovery Channel. In 2014 Parsons starred opposite Taylor Kitsch, Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer in “The Normal Heart,” HBO’s original movie adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Larry Kramer play, written by Kramer. Parsons portrayed gay activist Tommy Boatwright, reprising his role from the 2011 Broadway revival. Parsons received an Emmy nomination for his role, and the film won an Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie. Also, he voiced the lead character Buddy in NBC’s animated holiday special “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.”
Parsons starred in the film “A Kid like Jake,” a family drama in which a couple navigates the competitive world of New York City kindergarten admissions while trying to understand what is best for their son. In addition to starring alongside Claire Danes and Octavia Spencer, Parsons serves as a producer on the film along with Todd Spiewak, through their shingle, That’s Wonderful Productions, along with Eric Norsoph. The film made its world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
On the big screen, Parsons starred in “Hidden Figures” as Paul Stafford, alongside Kevin Costner and Taraji P. Henson. The film, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, won the National Board of Review award for Best Ensemble as well as the NAACP award for Outstanding Motion Picture. Previously, he voiced the lead role in the animated box office hit “Home,” co-starring singer/actress Rihanna. To date, the film has grossed over $368 million worldwide.
Coming up, Parsons will star in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” opposite Zac Efron, John Malkovich, Lilly Collins and Jeffrey Donovan. The film chronicles the life of the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, focusing on how a routine traffic stop eventually led to the revelation of Bundy’s horrific crimes.
Parsons’ many film credits include “Visions,” opposite Isla Fisher, Gillian Jacobs and Anson Mount; Todd Phillips’ “School for Scoundrels,” opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder; and Chris Terrio’s “Heights,” opposite Glenn Close and James Marsden. Also, he has created scene-stealing roles in several independent films, such as Zach Braff’s “Wish I Was Here” and “Garden State,” Kevin Connolly’s “Gardner of Eden” and Danny Leiner’s “The Great New Wonderful.”
Currently, Parsons can be seen in the Broadway revival “The Boys in the Band,” alongside Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells and Matt Bomer. The play is directed by two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello and produced by Ryan Murphy and David Stone. Parsons last starred on Broadway in the comedy “An Act of God,” where God and His devoted angels answer some of the deepest questions that have plagued mankind since Creation. Also on the stage, Parsons starred in the Broadway revival of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Harvey,” in the role of Elwood Dowd, the genial eccentric who claims to see a six-foot-tall white rabbit named Harvey. Parsons’ other stage performances include “The Castle” for the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, “The Countess” for the Globe Theater, and “The Tempest” and “As You Like It” for the Houston Shakespeare Festival.
Parsons made his Broadway debut in 2011, receiving a Theatre World Award for his performance as Tommy Boatwright in the revival of “The Normal Heart,” starring opposite Ellen Barkin, John Benjamin Hickey and Joe Mantello. “The Normal Heart” received five Tony Award nominations and won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play. Also, it won The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play and Outstanding Ensemble Performance, and received a nomination from The Outer Critics Circle for Outstanding Revival of a Play.
In January 2017, Parsons began hosting the SIRIUS XM Radio talk show “Jim Parsons Is Too Stupid for Politics” on Andy Cohen’s channel. The radio show features experts on politics and international affairs and gives listeners the opportunity to call in to get a better idea of what goes on in Washington, D.C.
Parsons earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Old Globe Theater/University of San Diego and a B.A. from the University of Houston. Born and raised in Houston, he now resides in Los Angeles. His birthday is March 24. "
"Born on February 25, 1907 in Denver, Colorado, Mary Coyle Chase grew up immersed in the Irish folktales of her mother’s family. She would later use those legends as inspiration for her fantastical stage plays and novels. After graduating high school, Chase attended the University of Denver and then the University of Colorado before landing a job with the Rocky Mountain News and working as a New Deal National Youth Administration publicity director. It was at Rocky Mountain News--where she worked as a successful journalist for fourteen years--that she met her husband, journalist Robert L. Chase, with whom she had three sons. After leaving Rocky Mountain, Chase focused on writing plays. 1936 saw her first produced work, titled Me, Third, enjoy popular success before it moved to Broadway and earned less-than-favorable reviews. However, Chase wouldn’t have to wait long to reclaim audience and critical approval as a playwright.
In 1944, she wrote Harvey, which marked her rise to fame after Brock Pemberton produced it in New York. Earning the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in Drama (making Chase only the fourth woman to have won that award) and drawing audiences for 1,775 performances, it ranked as the fifth longest-running Broadway show of its time, and it still remains--even with the explosion of popular Broadway musicals in the late 20th and 21st century--the 39th longest-running Broadway show of all time. When movie star James Stewart played the role of Elwood P. Dowd in the 1950 film of Harvey, Chase’s play and name were ensured a life beyond the 1940s New York stage. In 1947, the University of Denver presented Chase with an Honorary Doctorate of Literature.
Although Chase never again wrote a literary work that matched the success of Harvey, she continued to write. The Next Half Hour (1945), Bernardine (1952), Mrs. McThing (1954), and Mickey (1969) are only a few of the many plays she wrote over the next decades, and she also tried her hand at two children’s stories entitled Loretta Mason Potts (1958) and The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House (1968). Besides Harvey, her play Bernardine and an earlier play, Sorority House, were made into films. In 1981, a musical version of her masterpiece, Say Hello to Harvey, premiered and failed on Broadway.
After suffering a heart attack, Mary Coyle Chase died on October 20, 1981 in the city of her birth. Four years later, she earned a spot in the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, and today she is still remembered for her Irish folklore-inspired, fantastical stories and plays, and above all, for the original and charming Harvey. "