Briana Cuoco

Briana Cuoco was born on 29 November 1988, in Ventura, officially the City of San Buenaventura, which is the country seat of Ventura County, California, United States. Her parents are Layne Ann and Gary Carmine Cuoco. She is three years younger than Kaley who was born on November 30, 1985. Her father, who is a realtor, is of Italian ancestry and her mother, a homemaker, is of English ancestry.

Briana Cuoco began her professional career as a personal assistant to her sister, who was already a well-established actress in Hollywood. She made her screen debut in 2001, guest-starring as Nikki in the episode ‘Tangled Web’ of ‘The Nightmare Room’, an American children anthology horror series that used to air on Kids’ WB. She would have to wait more than a decade to land her next television appearance. She played Neal Sampat’s (Dev Patel) date in the episode ‘The 112th Congress’ of Aaron Sorkin’s political drama ‘The Newsroom’ in 2012.

In the same year, Cuoco portrayed Mary Bennet in the web series ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’, a modern rendition of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’. She reprised her role in the spin-off ‘The Lydia Bennet!!’, appearing in a total of 14 episodes in the first two seasons. While in the book Mary Bennet is one of the five Bennet sisters, the Mary Bennet of the show is Lizzie and Jane’s cousin who often appears in Lydia’s vlogs. In the TV series, she develops a strong bond with Lydia during the time the latter spends in their home. While they are clearly of opposite personalities, they find that they can get along quite well. The series humorously notes how she is essentially a forgotten character in the book, by giving her a Twitter handle with a description that reads “I am Mary, never forgotten." Mary seems to have a boyfriend named Eddie.

In ‘The Big Bang Theory’, she portrayed Gretchen, an old friend of Penny, whose old boyfriend cheated on her with Gretchen. She appeared in the season six episode ‘The Tangible Affection Proof’, which revolves around Valentine’s Day celebration. Cuoco was cast as Maggie, a dancer, in the 2013 episode ‘Behind the Red Curtain’ of CBS’ ‘The Mentalist’.

In 2015, she made her big screen debut with the romantic comedy ‘Beauty in the Broken’, playing the character Pele Peterson. In the 2017 episode ‘A Seafaring Ancestor and a Bloomin' Onion’ of CBS’ ‘Mom’, she made a cameo appearance as Tabitha.

Her band Bluebird has been deeply influenced by Adele, Sara Bareilles, Fiona Apple, and Florence and the Machine. Released in 2012, their Extended Play ‘Bluebird’ contained five tracks: ‘Another Year’, ‘October’, ‘Welcome to the Night’, ‘Selfish’, and ‘Be My Baby’. While it remained relatively unknown to music listeners at large, it received glowing reviews on iTunes.