Bill Prady

Born to a Jewish family,[3] Prady graduated from Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.[4] He began his writing career in Canada with You Can't Do That on Television in the early 1980s and also wrote for the animated version of Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock.

Joining Henson, he was a production assistant on a TV special about the world of technology. Prady stayed with the company and worked in the merchandising department. With the encouragement of Jim Henson, Prady began writing working on projects from the 3-D movie to The Jim Henson Hour.[5] During his tenure at The Muppets, he was visually caricatured as the puppet "Chip" (The Jim Henson Hour). In 1991, Prady was nominated for an Emmy award for co-writing the posthumous tribute to Jim Henson entitled "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson". He wrote the Disney theme park attractions Muppet*Vision 3D and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

On April 3, 2015, he co-wrote and sold a new version of Muppet Show with the working title The Muppets to ABC with Bob Kushell, who also served as show runner.[6]

His first staff writing job was on 5 episodes of the HBO series Dream On in 1995. In 1997 he joined the writing staff of Dharma & Greg, rising to Executive Producer and taking over as Showrunner in 2001. He was also a producer on Good Morning, Miami, Caroline in the City, Related, Platypus Man and Gilmore Girls.[7]

From 2007 to 2019, he was the executive producer and co-creator with Chuck Lorre of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

As of fall, 2012, Prady is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.[8] He is also a Trustee of the Humanitas "New Voices" program.[9]

In 2003, he was one of 135 candidates who ran for Governor of California in the 2003 recall election, receiving 474 votes, tying him for 111th place.[10]

Prady was a Z80 programmer at The Small Computer Company.[11] In 2010, Prady was given honorary membership in the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science.[12] In 2013, Prady was awarded NASA's Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.[13] In 2015, asteroid 8630 (1981 EY35) was designated 8630 Billprady in his honor.[14]

He is divorced from Kirith Prady (née Bernstein). The Pradys have two children: Stella, born in 1999 and Asher, born in 2006.[15]

• Caroline in the City, 1995–1997 (writer, producer)
• Dharma & Greg, 1997–2002 (writer, executive producer)
• Gilmore Girls, 2004–2005 (writer, co-executive producer)
• The Big Bang Theory, 2007–2019 (creator, writer, executive producer)

• Bill Prady at IMDb