Zoe Perry

Perry was born in Chicago to actors Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Perry. They divorced when she was three years old.^[2][3] Her first television roles were two appearances as Jackie Harris (as seen in flashback) on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, the character portrayed by her mother.^[4] Her parents, however, did not want her to pursue acting until she became an adult, fearing the effect of stress.^[5] Perry said that she was too shy to act in high school, but began performing at Northwestern University as a way to make friends after transferring from Boston University.^[6][5]

After graduating, Perry moved to New York to search for television work, landing small roles on series such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent, but homesickness brought her back to California, where she found theater work.^[6] In 2013, she performed in The Other Place on Broadway alongside her mother.^[6] In 2015, she performed alongside her father and Kevin McKidd in Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Anna Christie at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in West Los Angeles.^[7]

Perry appeared in nine episodes of the ABC thriller The Family in 2016.^[8] In 2017, she had a recurring role on the ABC political thriller Scandal, starring her father.^[4][9] The same year, she was cast on Young Sheldon, a spin-off of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, as a younger version of Mary Cooper (Sheldon Cooper's mother)^[10], the character her mother had played on 14 episodes of The Big Bang Theory.^[4] Despite her family link to the character, she received the role through an audition.^[4][9] She reprised the role of Mary Cooper on Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, which premiered on CBS on October 17, 2024.