“Young Sheldon” has been a popular staple of CBS’s lineup for six seasons. Created by Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro, it’s a spinoff of Lorre and Bill Prady’s “The Big Bang Theory,” tracing socially inept theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper’s (Jim Parsons) childhood in Medford, Texas. Parsons provides narration for the series, which has grown a fanbase almost as massive as “The Big Bang Theory.”
Iain Armitage plays young Sheldon Cooper, an exceptionally gifted child who enters high school when he’s just nine years old. Although a genius at math and physics, he’s completely adrift when it comes to social interactions, and he’s often condescending and rude to those around him. This puts him at odds with his family: devoutly Christian mom Mary (Zoe Perry), football coach dad George (Lance Barber), goofball older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan), twin sister Missy (Raegan Revord), and brash grandmother Connie aka Meemaw (Annie Potts). Yet they can’t help but love the little Einstein, whose prickly demeanor masks a greater vulnerability.
The world of “Young Sheldon” has grown so vast as to include a slew of side characters that have become fan favorites, including Sheldon’s nebbishy physics professor Dr. John Nesbitt (Wallace Shawn), Georgie’s much-older girlfriend Mandy McAllister (Emily Osment), and town preacher Jeff Difford (Matt Hobby). Here’s our countdown of “Young Sheldon’s” 15 best characters, ranked worst to best.
15. Tam Nguyen
Robert Voets/ 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Fans of “The Big Bang Theory” will remember Robert Wu’s appearance as Tam Nguyen, Sheldon’s (Jim Parson) childhood best friend, in the 12th season episode “The Tam Turbulence.” The gang is shocked to learn that Sheldon had any friends growing up, and they’re curious why the two went 20 years without speaking to each other. The details of their friendship are filled in during the first four seasons of “Young Sheldon,” with Ryan Phuong playing Tam as a teenager.
When nine-year-old wiz kid Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) arrives at high school, Tam is the only kid who will talk to him. It’s easy to see why the two get along, since the young Vietnamese American feels similarly out of place in small-town Texas. Tam fled to America with his family during the Vietnam War, where they experienced bigotry from their local community. Having seen his father imprisoned in a communist reeducation camp, he has little patience for most people. But he takes a liking to Sheldon, who shares his nerdy interests.
Yet Tam has been completely missing from the fifth and sixth seasons of “Young Sheldon,” as Sheldon went to college before Tam graduated high school. As explained in “The Tam Turbulence,” the two had a falling out when Tam decided to stay in Texas and get married rather than follow his friend to CalTech. That hasn’t stopped fans from opining on his absence in the popular Where is Tam sub-Reddit, indicating he is sorely missed.
14. Mandy McAllister
CBS
Mandy McAllister showed up as a recurring character in the fifth season, later becoming a series regular. As played by Emily Osment, she’s Georgie Cooper’s (Montana Jordan) much older girlfriend-turned-baby-momma. From her very first appearance, Mandy has annoyed and delighted fans in almost equal measure, both for her eyebrow-raising age difference with Georgie and her whiplash-inducing feelings about their relationship.
From the moment they meet at the laundromat in “A Lock-In, a Weather Girl and a Disgusting Habit,” Mandy and Georgie have an instant connection, so much so that they both lie about their ages — she claims she’s 25 when she’s 29, he says he’s 21 when he’s actually only 17. By the time the truth about their actual age difference is discovered, Georgie has gotten Mandy pregnant and she’s moved in with the Coopers after her own family disowns her. Even though they’ve decided to raise their child together, Mandy doesn’t want to be romantically involved with Georgie, encouraging him to date girls his own age.
Yet she can’t help but feel attracted to him, and her fluctuating emotions have left some viewers exasperated. On the other hand, many fans find their will-they-won’t-they dynamic to be a series highlight.
13. Coach Wayne Wilkins
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While many characters from Sheldon’s high school years have fallen off after he went to college, his gym teacher, Coach Wayne Wilkins (Doc Farrow), has stuck around since he works with his father, Medford High head football coach George Cooper (Lance Barber). Sheldon isn’t one for physical activity, but ironically enough, neither is his coach. Although he encourages his students to maintain a healthy diet and exercise regimen, Coach Wilkins isn’t exactly a model of good health, a fact that Sheldon (Iain Armitage) often points out to him.
Wilkins becomes head coach at the end of Season 5, after George is told he’s being replaced because his skills are being called into question by angry parents. George is called back into action in the Season 6 episode “An Ugly Car, an Affair and Some Kickass Football,” when Wilkins discovers his wife, Darlene (Julia Pace Mitchell), is pregnant with another man’s child. His personal life in shambles, Wilkins is unable to keep his head in the game, leading Medford High to offer George his job back. The good soul that he is, he agrees to retake his position on the condition he can bring back his trusted assistant coach.
12. Dr. Grant Linkletter
CBS
Whether it’s on “Better Call Saul,” “Arrested Development,” or “Portlandia,” it’s always fun whenever Ed Begley Jr. shows up on television screens. The seven-time Emmy nominee joined “Young Sheldon” as a recurring cast member in Season 2, playing Dr. Grant Linkletter. Much like his colleague, Dr. John Sturgis (Wallace Shawn), Dr. Linkletter is a physics professor at East Texas Tech, the university where Sheldon (Iain Armitage) starts taking courses at a very young age. And, also like Dr. Sturgis, Dr. Linkletter is interested in more than just Sheldon’s education: Namely, he’s got his eye on the pint-sized freshman’s Meemaw, Connie (Annie Potts).
In the third season episode “A Broom Closet and Satan’s Monopoly Board,” Sheldon must sit in on Dr. Linkletter’s physics class while Dr. Sturgis recovers from a recent stay in the psychiatric institution. Although the precocious pupil often gets on his nerves, the good doctor is instantly charmed by his Meemaw, Connie (Annie Potts), and starts looking for excuses to be around her. By Season 6, Dr. Linkletter has finally convinced Connie to go on a date with him, treating her to some Polynesian margaritas in “Future Worf and the Margarita of the South Pacific” (needless to say, it doesn’t go well).
11. Coach Dale Ballard
Robert Voets/2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Die-hard classic TV fans had a good chuckle when Craig T. Nelson showed up in the third season of “Young Sheldon” as Coach Dale Ballard, having played college football instructor Hayden Fox on the long-running series “Coach.” But Nelson’s performance is more than just a bit of stunt casting: Coach Dale has since become a major recurring character on the show.
Coach Dale made his first appearance in the Season 3 episode “A Parasol and a Hell of an Arm.” In that installment, Missy Cooper (Raegan Revord) wants to join a Little League team, but Coach Dale thinks girls have no place on the baseball field. Meemaw raises hell when she hears this, and takes Missy back to the coach’s office to show off her million-dollar arm. Coach Dale is impressed with both Missy’s pitching skills and Meemaw’s tenacity. Recently broken up with Dr. John Sturgis (Wallace Shawn), Connie agrees to go on a date with the coach, and the two begin an on-again-off-again relationship with many comical ups and downs. Eventually, he gives Missy’s dad George and her brother Georgie a job at his sporting goods store, albeit with mixed results.
10. Brenda Sparks
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Every protagonist needs an antagonist, and for Sheldon Cooper, that’s neighborhood bully Billy Sparks (Wyatt McClure). For Sheldon’s mother Mary, it’s Billy’s mom, Brenda Sparks (Melissa Peterman). Yet as in Sheldon’s relationship with Billy, Mary and Brenda eventually become friends, finding a shared bond over raising weird kids in a small town. It just goes to show that no one can be a villain for too long in the world of “Young Sheldon.”
Brenda manages the local bowling alley the Coopers like to frequent. Her tart tongue and hair-trigger temper put her at odds with most of the customers, although Connie has a soft spot for her. The same can’t be said for her husband, garage shop owner Hershel Sparks (Billy Gardell), who divorces her. (A convenient plot twist, considering Gardell was cast as the lead of another Chuck Lorre sitcom, “Bob Hearts Abishola,” the same year he left “Young Sheldon.”) Brenda grows closer to the Cooper family after her husband leaves her, even getting Mary a job at the bowling alley. At the same time, however, she begins a flirtation with George Cooper (Lance Barber) that could end disastrously for both families.
9. Pastor Jeff Difford
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The centuries-long conflict between science and religion plays out in “Young Sheldon” in the form of Pastor Jeff Difford (Matt Hobby), minister at the Cooper family’s church. The family’s youngest son Sheldon, frequently spars with Pastor Jeff over his religious faith, poking holes in his sermons and challenging his blind faith. It just goes to show that from the very beginning, Sheldon applied logic to every situation, including Sunday school.
In all fairness, if there’s anyone who deserved to be taken down a peg, it’s Pastor Jeff. When he’s introduced in the pilot, he tries to win Sheldon over during a sermon. But when Sheldon makes his case for atheism over religion, the minister quickly shuts him down, and the little genius makes him an enemy for life. Behind closed doors, Pastor Jeff is stealing money from his non-English-speaking Hispanic wife, Selena (Zuleyka Silver), to fund his struggling church. (She divorces him once she figures out what her stolen credit cards are paying for.)
Sheldon’s mother Mary works for the church, but Pastor Jeff asks her to take a leave of absence when she starts having problems at home, causing Mary to question her faith. Needless to say, this didn’t endear the good reverend to the show’s fans.
8. Billy Sparks
CBS
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Sheldon Cooper was bullied as a child. As an adult, Sheldon still carried the wounds inflicted by his nemesis Billy Sparks, so much so that he included him on his all-time enemies list. In “Young Sheldon,” Billy (Wyatt McClure) starts off as a bully, but quickly becomes friendly with Sheldon, leading fans to question Sheldon’s definition of “bullying.”
Billy lives in Sheldon’s neighborhood, and the two are introduced at the behest of Sheldon’s mom, who fears her eccentric son might have trouble making friends. Billy tries to introduce Sheldon to his pet chicken, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Yet the two grow closer, and Sheldon eventually helps the sweet but slow-witted Billy with his math homework so he can finally pass the sixth grade (having repeated it several times). Billy also falls in love with Sheldon’s twin sister, Missy (Reagan Revord), who doesn’t exactly reciprocate his affections (although there’s reason to believe the two will eventually marry and divorce).
Given Sheldon’s painful memories of Billy on “The Big Bang Theory,” his friendly demeanor on “Young Sheldon” has come as a surprise to viewers. In fact, many fans felt sympathy for him when Missy rejected him in the fifth season episode “Stuffed Animals and a Sweet Southern Syzygy.”
7. Missy Cooper
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Fans of “The Big Bang Theory” first learned about Sheldon’s twin sister, Missy Cooper (Courtney Henggeler), in the Season 1 episode “The Pork Chop Indeterminacy,” in which she comes to visit from Texas and all of her brother’s friends instantly fall for her. (She returned in Season 11 to watch Sheldon marry Amy in “The Bow Tie Asymmetry,” visibly pregnant with her ex-husband’s child.) We learn more about their relationship in “Young Sheldon,” with Raegan Revord playing her from childhood through adolescence.
Although they’re twins, Sheldon and Missy couldn’t be more different. Where Sheldon is awkward, withdrawn, and intellectual, Missy is affable, outgoing, and emotionally intelligent. Yet even though she doesn’t share her brother’s genius for physics, Missy is smarter than your average nine-year-old. She often feels neglected by her parents, who devote most of their attention to their little genius. Despite being jealous of her twin prodigy, she often finds Sheldon to be a trusted confidant and is always there for him when he’s feeling down.
Missy’s sense of neglect from her family only grows as she enters adulthood, and teenage angst causes her to act out in selfish ways. This has created a love/hate dynamic amongst many fans.
6. Georgie Cooper
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Jerry O’Connell made two appearances in “The Big Bang Theory” as Sheldon’s estranged older brother, Georgie Cooper (he also played their dad in flashbacks in the Season 12 installment “The Tam Turbulence”). In the Season 11 episode “The Sibling Realignment,” we learn that Georgie resents his younger brother for going off to college while he stayed at home to take care of their mother and sister after their father died. The two make up, and Georgie attends Sheldon’s wedding. In “Young Sheldon,” Georgie is played as a teenager by Montana Jordan.
The eldest child in the Cooper household, Georgie isn’t exactly pleased to be starting high school alongside his much younger, much smarter brother. He also doesn’t like the outsized amount of attention Sheldon receives from their parents, a sticking point that bonds him with their sister, Missy (Raegan Revord). Georgie isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, which makes him the butt of the Cooper family’s jokes. Eventually, he falls in love with the much-older Mandy McAllister (Emily Osment), gets her pregnant, and drops out of school to start his family (as we later find out in “The Big Bang Theory,” his lack of a high school diploma doesn’t affect his ability to start a successful tire company chain).
5. Dr. John Sturgis
CBS
If ever there were an actor for whom the world of “Young Sheldon” fit like a glove, it’s Wallace Shawn. As the eccentric college physics professor Dr. John Sturgis, Shawn is almost an apparition of the man Sheldon Cooper would grow up to become. He’s also been the unlikeliest love interest for Sheldon’s Meemaw, Connie Tucker.
When we first meet Dr. Sturgis, Meemaw has taken Sheldon to audit his quantum chromodynamics course at the local college. The visiting professor takes an instant liking to the world’s littlest genius, and is smitten with Connie as well. Despite being a carbon copy of her grandson, Connie takes a liking to him as well. But their relationship comes to an end with Dr. Sturgis suffering a nervous breakdown after the announcement of the Nobel Prize winners. His struggles with depression land him in a psychiatric institution, but his troubles don’t end there. He’s fired from the university’s supercollider project after giving a disastrous interview, and goes to work at a grocery store, where he’s later let go for discussing the science of reproduction with Sheldon. Shawn’s performance as Dr. Sturgis has provided “Young Sheldon” with lots of laughs and lots of heart, much to the delight of the show’s fans.
4. George Cooper
CBS
Anyone familiar with Sheldon Cooper’s life story knows the end is in sight for his father, George Cooper Sr. On “The Big Bang Theory,” Sheldon (Jim Parsons) says his dad died in 1994, when Sheldon was just 14 years old. That’s a shame, because he’s become a fan favorite on “Young Sheldon.” Despite adult Sheldon’s description of his old man as an abusive lout, he’s portrayed as a pretty loving and supportive guy in the prequel series (although there’s still time for that to change).
George Cooper Sr. couldn’t be more different from his genius son, Sheldon: a Vietnam veteran and former star athlete, George is the head football coach at Medford High, where his sons Sheldon and Georgie attend. Although his mother-in-law Connie often jokes that he might not be Sheldon’s biological father, that doesn’t stop him from loving his eccentric son to the best of his abilities. Yet there’s trouble brewing in the Cooper household, starting when George loses his job and begins a flirtatious relationship with his newly divorced neighbor Brenda Sparks (Melissa Peterman). This causes understandable strife between him and his wife, Mary. Given adult Sheldon’s recollection of his father’s affairs, it seems as though things are about to get a lot worse.
3. Connie Meemaw Tucker
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In a lot of ways, Meemaw is the heart and soul of “Young Sheldon.” As played by film and TV veteran Annie Potts (“Designing Women,” “Ghostbusters”), she’s a wise-cracking Southern belle who sees potential in her idiosyncratic grandson that the rest of his family often overlooks. Although his parents Mary and George have their doubts, Meemaw knows her little “Moonpie” will find acceptance one day. (She sees her wish fulfilled in the Season 9 “Big Bang Theory” episode “The Meemaw Materialization,” with June Squibb playing the elderly grandmother.)
Meemaw — also known as Constance “Connie” Tucker — is Sheldon’s maternal grandmother, and the only member of his family that he doesn’t lord his superior intellect over. Brash, brassy, and outgoing, Meemaw has a long-term relationship with Sheldon’s physics professor, Dr. John Sturgis, that dissolves when he suffers a nervous breakdown. She starts dating Coach Dale Ballard (Craig T. Nelson), who helps her out of multiple jams when she opens an illegal gambling room. Although her relationship with her daughter is often strained, she more than makes up for it with the help she provides raising her grandchildren. Fans of “Young Sheldon” love Meemaw almost as much as her grandson does.
2. Mary Cooper
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Laurie Metcalf made 14 appearances as Sheldon Cooper’s mother, Mary Cooper, on “The Big Bang Theory,” earning an Emmy nomination for the Season 9 episode “The Convergence Convergence.” When it came time to cast a younger version of the role for “Young Sheldon,” the producers didn’t have to look far. They found a perfect surrogate in Metcalf’s real-life daughter, Zoe Perry, and it’s a testament to her abilities as an actress that she’s been able to do more than just recreate her famous mother’s performance. In many ways, Perry has made the role her own.
Much like her husband George, Mary struggles to understand her genius son, yet loves him to the best of her abilities. That’s easier said than done, since Sheldon’s atheism is at odds with her devout Christianity. Mary’s faith informs every decision she makes about raising her children, including trying to restrict Sheldon from playing “Dungeons and Dragons” because it feels slightly satanic. She works as a secretary at the church, yet she’s abandoned by the congregation when Pastor Jeff asks her to take a leave of absence due to some family problems. Her world is further shaken by the suspicion that her husband is cheating on her with their neighbor, Brenda Sparks.
1. Sheldon Cooper
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Honestly, was there any doubt the title character wouldn’t top our list of the best “Young Sheldon” characters? Needless to say, this prequel series wouldn’t work without a pint-sized dead ringer for Jim Parsons’ socially inept theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper. Luckily for the show’s creators, they found Iain Armitage, who’s managed to capture Parsons’ persona in kid form. But his performance is more than just mere mimicry: Armitage makes young Sheldon a wholly unique character in his own right.
Sheldon Cooper could not be more out of place in the small town of Medford, Texas: Gifted beyond his years in the fields of science and mathematics, he is also woefully socially inept, lording his intelligence over everyone he encounters. His aversion to sports and religion doesn’t help him make friends either, and he struggles to relate to his family and fellow kids. Yet despite his prickly demeanor, there’s no doubt that Sheldon has a heart made of gold (even though he’d argue that’s a biological impossibility). Over time, his family grows to accept Sheldon, even if they can’t quite understand him, and he manages to make a few friends along the way.
