Young Sheldon actress Zoe Perry had her start in television as a child on a popular American sitcom which starred her mother.
Perry’s mother is Laurie Metcalf, who played Jackie, the sister of Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) in Roseanne.
In a couple of flashback segments, Perry appeared in the comedy series as a younger version of Jackie.
“That was really fun because I knew the crew and everyone very well because I grew up on that set from four years old,” says Perry.
“For me, it was just like an adventure, getting to play around with friends and getting to cut school for a day.”
These days Perry, 36, stars in The Big Bang Theory’s prequel series Young Sheldon, which is set in Texas in the early 90s.
In the latter show, she plays the wholesome Mary Cooper, who is married to football coach George Cooper (Lance Barber). The Coopers have three children including the intellectual Sheldon (Iain Armitage).
When Perry secured the role of Mary she was starring in the legal drama Scandal, alongside her father Jeff Perry, an actor recognisable from Grey’s Anatomy where he played the father of Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).
Interestingly, the character of Mary Cooper was one that Zoe Perry’s mother Laurie Metcalf was already familiar with.
In The Big Bang Theory, which was set in the present day, Metcalf had a recurring role as Mary Cooper, the mother of the adult Sheldon who was portrayed by Jim Parsons.
“It’s a surreal thing to be pursuing this profession that my parents are fairly established in, but it’s also a kind of a wild treat,” says Perry.
“So getting to play this part has also been amazing because I very much admire what had already been established for the other Mary Cooper.”
Perry, who has four siblings, was born in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles as a preschooler when her mother landed a role on Roseanne.
As a child she did not have her heart set on becoming an actress. Perry says she was quite different from the young actors who play her offspring on Young Sheldon.
“I was pretty introverted,” she says. “So it might have also been a shock to my family (for me) to pursue this later. But I don’t know, it’s a funny one. You sometimes get introverts in these professions.
“But I would never have had the gumption that these young ones have. They’re very outgoing and very charismatic.”
When she was a teenager, Perry visited New Zealand on holiday.
“I was still in high school,” she says. “I came during my summer, New Zealand’s winter. I got to ski a little bit and I travelled around in a van and it was awesome. Everyone was so lovely.”
Perry says she got the acting bug at university. It helped that her parents were actors as it gave her an insight into the industry.
“I definitely feel very grateful that I’ve had an example with (my mother) and my father because it definitely helps to have a sounding board,” she says.
As many actors know too well, the profession can be a tough business, but Perry says her parents didn’t try to put her off.
“They never outwardly expressed their fear, but I could kind of sense it,” she says.
“The older I get in the business, the more I understand it, and I’m kind of amazed that they held back as much as they did. Because it’s hard even, you know, watching them have successes.
“There are also lean years and you never really know what’s around the bend. So it’s not always a straight line. You’ve got to really love it.”
As well as Scandal and Young Sheldon, Perry has popped up on NCIS and Private Practice, albeit in minor parts.
Young Sheldon is her biggest role to date, but she says she rarely gets recognised from the show.
