<Tr> <Th> Nationality </Th> <Td> American </Td> </Tr> <P> Sheldon Lee Cooper, Ph. D., Sc. D., is a fictional character in the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, portrayed by actor Jim Parsons in The Big Bang Theory and Iain Armitage in Young Sheldon . For his portrayal, Parsons has won four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a TCA Award, and two Critics' Choice Television Awards . The childhood of the character will be the focus of Young Sheldon, the show being set in 1989, when 9 - year - old Sheldon, who has skipped ahead four grades, starts high school alongside his older brother . </P> <P> Sheldon is a senior theoretical physicist at Caltech and shared an apartment with his colleague and best friend, Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki). However, Sheldon now lives across the hall with his girlfriend Amy, in the former apartment of Leonard's wife Penny . He is a former child prodigy with genius level IQ, but displays an almost total lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of humor, and difficulty recognizing irony and sarcasm in other people, although he himself often employs them . He exhibits highly idiosyncratic behavior and a general lack of humility or empathy . He also lacks toleration . These characteristics provide the majority of the humor involving him, which has caused him to be described as the show's breakout character . Despite speculation that Sheldon's personality traits may be consistent with Asperger syndrome, obsessive--compulsive personality disorder, and asexuality, co-creator Bill Prady has repeatedly stated that Sheldon's character was neither conceived nor developed with regard to any of these traits . </P> <P> The character of Sheldon Cooper was inspired by a computer programmer personally known to series co-creator Bill Prady . He is named in honor of actor / producer Sheldon Leonard and Nobel Prize Laureate Leon Cooper . Chuck Lorre originally intended Johnny Galecki to play the role, but Galecki thought he would be "better suited" for the character of Leonard . Lorre said that when Jim Parsons auditioned for the role, he was "so startlingly good" that he was asked to reaudition "to make sure he hadn't gotten lucky". Sheldon is one of four characters to appear in every episode of the series, along with Leonard, Howard, and Raj . </P>

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