The 45-year-old recently joined host Jessica Radloff on The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast<\/a> to talk about how she landed the role of Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the sitcom.<\/p>\n Rauch, who joined the cast in season 3, admitted that \u201cBernadette’s voice is very much my mom’s voice without the Jersey accent.”<\/p>\n The cast of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (L-R): Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik, Melissa Rauch, Simon Helberg and Kevin Sussman \u201cI am trying to remember what the exact description was, but it was definitely something like a girl that Howard is going on a date with, who also lives at home with her mother, and is like very sheltered, a nice Catholic girl, and I remember that she was a microbiologist.\u201d<\/p>\n While Rauch brought a pair of glasses to the audition, she didn’t know if she would use them until right before walking in.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were so many other women there, and I just remember looking around the room, thinking like, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll put these glasses on to sort of differentiate myself,'” the actress shared. “It was a lot of like, last-minute decisions. I also pitched up my voice a little bit.”<\/p>\n Although she went into the audition with a Bernadette voice in mind, she admitted it \u201cwasn’t as pitched up as it eventually became, but it was definitely up there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had been talking to my mom on the phone before the audition, and she has a high-pitched voice, and so I sort of had her voice in my head, and I had rehearsed the audition material, both ways, with it pitched up and with it not, and then it was like a game-time decision of, like, glasses and to pitch up the voice,\u201d Rauch said.<\/p>\n Melissa Rauch in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 seasons from September 2007 to May 2019. The series delighted viewers with quirky humor and idiosyncratic characters, with a cast that included Kaley Cuoco<\/a>, Jim Parsons<\/a>, Mayim Bialik<\/a> and Johnny Galecki<\/a>, to name a few.<\/p>\n One of the reasons Rauch was able to get into character so easily, she said, was because she \u201cloved the material.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get material that’s just so well written, and it’s just so fun to do. I remember just being so excited that I got to work on it for that week,\u201d Rauch said.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8ee414938393ad4cf880df998b468885.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Sonja Flemming\/CBS\/Getty<\/p>\n![\"Melissa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3b9d1aeede88ba3499664dfe06d26f16.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Sonja Flemming\/CBS\/Getty<\/p>\n