Bialik was born in San Diego, California to Jewish parents Barry Bialik and Beverly Winkelman. Her grandparents were European refugees from the Holocaust, immigrating from Poland and Czechoslovakia/Hungary. Bialik was raised in the Reform Jewish religion. One of her ancestors is the famed poet Chaim Nachman Bialik, but she is not related to Wall Street Journal online columnist Carl Bialik. Her name Read more...

Bialik had a career as a child actress in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1989, Bialik won the Young Artist Award for "Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Fantasy" for her role in Beaches (1988). She also made a notable guest appearance as Lisa Woodman in MacGyver.

Her greatest success came in 1991 when Blossom joined NBC's Monday night lineup following The Fresh Prince of Read more...

At the end of Blossom, she chose to attend UCLA, despite reports that she was accepted at both Harvard and Yale[citation needed]. She stated that she wanted to stay close to her parents and did not want to move all the way to the East Coast. She earned a bachelor's degree in 2000 in neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish studies, and went on to the Ph.D. program in neuroscience. A 2002 interview stated Read more...