Career
Cuoco made her first feature film appearance as the young Karin Carter in the 1995 action thriller Virtuosity, alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
In 1999 she appeared on the CBS sitcom Ladies Man and in 2000 she portrayed former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick in the TV movie Growing Up Brady as well as starring in the Disney Channel Original Movie Alley Cats Strike.
In 2002 Cuoco, at the age of 16, began a starring role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules. Bridget was the eldest child, despite Cuoco being six years younger than her on-screen little sister (Amy Davidson), and was portrayed as "the most beautiful girl in the school." She had several boyfriends throughout the series and used her feminine wiles to exert significant control over the boys she encountered.
2004 was a busy year for Cuoco. In addition to the last season of 8 Simple Rules, she had starring roles on the NBC miniseries, 10.5, on the ABC Family original movie, Crimes of Fashion, in the independent film, Debating Robert Lee and in the movie The Hollow with Nick Carter and Kevin Zegers. She also began voicing the character of Brandy Harrington on the Disney Channel's cartoon, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers.
In the eighth season of the hit cult TV show Charmed, Cuoco appeared as Billie Jenkins, a powerful young witch who was also one of whitelighter Paige Matthews' charges. Executive producer Brad Kern stated Kaley's character was initially brought in as a possible spin-off.
Cuoco starred in the Lifetime film To Be Fat Like Me, which premiered on January 8, 2007. She also played a minor role in the Prison Break episodes "The Message" and "Chicago" as well as taking the leading female role in the comedy horror spoof Killer Movie in 2008.
In September 2007, Cuoco began a starring role in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. She plays Penny, an aspiring actress and employee at The Cheesecake Factory who lives across the hall from two nerdy scientists, Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki). Prior to the 2010–2011 season, she earned $60,000 an episode for the series, the same as Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons. In 2010 the cast negotiated a raise for each actor to make $200,000 per episode. On September 13, 2010, she broke her leg in a horse-riding accident and missed two episodes of the series. In late October 2012, Cuoco enlisted the help of her dancer sister, Briana, to organize a flash mob on the set of the show, in which she and the cast and crew surprised the studio audience by suddenly lip-synching and dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen's then-ubiquitous song "Call Me Maybe". A video of the event was posted on YouTube and became a viral success.
Cuoco was named number 77 on FHM-Us 100 Sexiest Women in 2005 and number 21 in 2008. She was also named number 28 on Maxim's annual Hot 100 list in 2010 and number 13 in 2011.
In 2011, Cuoco appeared in Allure magazine's annual "Naked Truth" feature. That same year, she appeared in the films Hop and The Last Ride. She was also chosen to host the 2011 Teen Choice Awards and the People's Choice Awards 2012 and 2013.
Read more about this topic: Kaley Cuoco
Famous quotes containing the word career:
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