Pasadena

The Big Bang Theory is set in Pasadena, California, where the physicists Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper share an apartment and Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress, lives across the hall. Howard Wolowitz is a Pasadena native, born in 1981 according to the season one episode "The Pancake Batter Anomaly". Leonard once suggested that Penny enroll in Pasadena City College, which she took as an insult to her intelligence.