Shortly before the end of “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS launched its first spinoff, “Young Sheldon,” which went on to air for seven seasons and 141 episodes. That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment for any spinoff, and “Young Sheldon” was so beloved it launched its own in 2024: “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.” That series is going strong, and “Young Sheldon” ended its run in May 2024. The cast of “Young Sheldon” consisted of several children, meaning the audience got the opportunity to see them grow up.
Child actors who began the series were around eight years old, and by the end, they were in their late teens. This afforded an unusual opportunity to watch them mature each gradually and subtly as viewers tuned in each week of “Young Sheldon’s” run. The adult actors also went through considerable changes across the series’ seven seasons. When the show finally wrapped, some transitioned their characters into the new spinoff while others found new projects.
“Young Sheldon” was a fun and fascinating look into the life of one of the most important characters in “The Big Bang Theory,” but there were many other key players that made up the cast, and everyone involved benefited greatly from its production. Along with some drastic changes, here’s what the cast of “Young Sheldon” has been up to since the show ended.
Iain Armitage matured into a polyglot and is enjoying flying high
Iain Armitage was eight when he won the role of Sheldon Cooper in “Young Sheldon,” but it was hardly his first acting gig. Armitage first gained recognition much earlier on the YouTube series “Iain Loves Theatre.” This helped him move forward in the industry, and he went on to work as a correspondent for Perez Hilton. After this, Armitage landed in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which he followed up by playing Ziggy Chapman in “Big Little Lies.”
Armitage continued acting in “Big Little Lies” while simultaneously playing Sheldon in his eponymous show. It’s undeniable that Armitage was well cast to portray a younger version of Sheldon, as he affected Jim Parsons’ mannerisms from “The Big Bang Theory” to perfection. This was impressive, given his young age, and he had little trouble proving he had what it took to play a complex character with little understanding of social norms from one season to the next.
When “Young Sheldon” ended, Armitage set his sights on other interests, though he’s hardly retired from acting. He has several things in common with his on-screen counterpart, as he’s something of a polyglot. Armitage enjoys learning new languages and has picked up Armenian, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic, and several others, though he’s not fully fluent in all of them. On top of that, Armitage loves flying, so he went out and got himself a pilot’s license, celebrating his first solo flight via an Instagram post in July 2024.
Lance Barber had a walk-on role in “The Big Bang Theory,” playing Jimmy Speckerman, one of Leonard’s (Johnny Galecki) bullies in high school, before finding his way to “Young Sheldon.” That was one minor role in a long career, as Barber began acting in television in 2001. He’s appeared in numerous popular series over the years and has had several film roles.
He’s probably best known for playing Bill Ponderosa in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” where he’s appeared in about a dozen episodes. In “Young Sheldon,” Barber took on the role of George Cooper Sr., the Cooper family patriarch. George never seems to fully understand Sheldon, but it’s clear throughout the series that he cares for him a great deal. There are many touching moments spread throughout the show, which is made all the more disheartening for fans of “The Big Bang Theory.”
That’s because they knew going in that George wasn’t long for this world. Indeed, his character was killed off in the penultimate episode, leaving the finale for the family to deal with his loss. Because his character died, you’d think Barber would be finished playing him when “Young Sheldon” ended, but that’s not the case. He had the opportunity to return in a single episode of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.” in the episode “Typhoid George,” George Sr. returns via several dream sequences in a lovely homage to Barber’s popular character.
