Mayim Bialik Returning to Acting For Family

Adrian Varnedoe/Pacific Coast News

In the 1990′s former child star Mayim Bialik walked away from her celebrity and instead into the classrooms of UCLA. Since receiving her Ph.D in neuroscience last year, the 33-year-old mother of two has been writing for several organizations that raise funds for mental retardation research – but she’s contemplating a return to acting, after all. Mayim tells Entertainment Tonight,

“I am actually auditioning and sticking a toe back into the industry. I am very happy I got my degree and I worked very hard on my theses, but in terms of having kids and the family life we have, academia right now is not where I can go.”

Mayim — whose show Blossom was broadcast from 1991-1995 — and husband Michael Stone are parents to sons Miles, 3, and Frederick Heschel, 5-months.

– Missy

Source: Entertainment Tonight

Comments

Kayla on January 22nd, 2009

I wonder what she means by that. I would think that academia would be a lot more stable then Hollywood.

K

Julie on January 22nd, 2009

Academics are paid orders of magnitude less than actors. And the academic environment is incredibly competitive.

Autumn on January 22nd, 2009

Yeah, although I agree with Kayla about academia being more stable (and more respectable) than Hollywood, obviously Mayim is turnung back to acting for financial reasons mostly. She might miss acting to some degree, however the biggest draw is the money potential.

With her history of being well remembered by her generation, she has the potential to make ‘a lot’ of money (relatively speaking) for very little work. No doubt even a minor role for her on a show like “How I Met Your Mother”, for example, filmed over the course of a few days would probably pay the equivalent of a few weeks work as a professor.

Sara on January 22nd, 2009

I could see her on a show like “Numbers”.

sbg on January 22nd, 2009

as a former academic… the main problem is not the money, although that is a contributing factor. to have a career she’ll have to work in internships similar to new MDs (long hours) and compete for governmental research funds. dual salary could support middle class lifestyle, but research requires working day, evening, weekends and if wet-lab research, hard to do from home. typically takes 6-9 yrs to get a professorship.

MZ on January 22nd, 2009

Also, to keep a job as a professor (to get tenure), you need to constantly be publishing. To publish, you need grant money. With the current economy, it’s even harder to get the money now, particularly from the government.

Jeannie on January 22nd, 2009

She and Danica McKellar (Wonder Years) should do a sitcom about two really intelligent women. Or a drama. Something!

Terri on January 22nd, 2009

Kayla-it means she can’t afford the cost of tuition. Can’t wait to see what they cast her in. She was funny in the 90s!

Autumn on January 22nd, 2009

Actually when I posted the previous comnment, I’d realized too that time is a factor as well, and like SBG and MZ said, fullfilling her requirements as professor would be a lot more time consuming than performing a role on a TV program or even a film. (Filming for short periods of time, would be more conducive to being the mother of two young children than a professorship probably is, so I can see how she’d be tempted to go back.)

Jeannie’s idea was great, and when I read about Mayim dipping back into the acting pool I too thought of Danica, so a show with the two of them together would be brilliant. (Still though I hope that Mayim doesn’t necessarily take part of Danica’s route back to celebrity, and make a cheesecake/bikini calendar just for extra dough/publicity. lol!)

Jeanette on January 22nd, 2009

As other posters have mentioned, I think time is a factor. You can film something in a few weeks or months and then not work for a while if you want time with your family and still have financial security. As to not affording the tuition as one poster mentioned – I doubt she’d have tuition as she already received her phD. Probably more the long research hours, competition for grants, odd teaching schedules, etc.

Kim on January 22nd, 2009

Love that she is breastfeeding in this picture! Go mama!

kristen on January 22nd, 2009

i know, i am really proud she’s nursing on the go too! awesome.

Natasha on January 23rd, 2009

I wouldn’t want women to be put off from entering academia by this comment. It is possible to work in research and have a young family – universities in the UK generally have good on-site childcare facilities – one mother I know working at a UK university used to go and breastfeed her baby at the day-care nursery in her work breaks. However, I guess the way filming works is that you get to have your kids around you on set, do a short time of filming, and then spend months at home with your kids, which sounds a lot more family-focused than academia. If you do take time out to be the kids though, it will hard to get back into it, as people will ask why you have not published or stayed involved with the subject area. Kudos to her for putting family first though – I am qualified with a PhD and have been a ‘stay at home’ mother for 5 years – some women I studied with cannot believe I have ‘wasted’ my potential but I feel fulfilled with the childcare role and can’t see it happening any other way!

Fevvers on January 23rd, 2009

my academic friends are all full of angst about babies vs career. its a tough area to be if you want a family and want to actually spend any time with them apart from breastfeeding in your breaks…because you are always competing against other people with no kids or partners that do all the childcare: publish or perish!

Trisha on January 23rd, 2009

Wow! I had no idea she had any kids, how very cool. I remember her from Beaches, playing Bette Midler’s character as a child. Even now I swear she could pass as her Daughter lol

Terri on March 6th, 2010

Actually, Autumn, Danica McKellar did a lot more than “a cheesecake/bikini calendar”; to those paying attention to the academic world she is a mathematical genius and is aiding in the quest to make math more appealing to young people.