Penny From 'Big Bang Theory' Is Official With The Dead Brother From 'Ozark'

Just when you had your hopes up about Kaley Cuoco being single again, she goes and finds a dead guy.

Actually, actor Tom Pelphry is alive and well. He just plays a dead guy on TV, or more accurately, Netflix. Fans of the hit show, "Ozark" know Pelphry best as Ben Davis, Wendy Byrd's dead brother. (Spoiler alert: Wendy had him killed, but anyone who watches the show knew that at least a year ago.)

As for Cuoco, most people pin her as Penny Hofstadter on "The Big Bang Theory," though she is suddenly making waves as Cassie Bowden in HBO's "The Flight Attendant," a show for which she also serves as executive producer.








Anyway, the couple made their courtship official on Instagram (where else?), sharing pictures and videos of their recent trip together. Pelphry, 39, shared them first, and then Cuoco, 36, shared some later.

"‘But nothing can save you. Not your friends, not the best Fred Astaire musical you’ve ever seen- the grace of it, not your mother’s beauty, not a line from a letter you find at the bottom of a drawer, not a magazine or the next day. Nothing can save you," Pelphry wrote. "And you stand in the moonlight and a sweetness comes off the top of the trees, and the fence around the yard seals you off from the dark and you can’t breathe. It is all so familiar and possible. It is too simple that there is this much good in the world and you don’t know how to have it. And it makes you wonder when it was you lost your place. Then you catch a breeze, so warm and ripe, it makes you hope that someone will come who also cannot save you, but who will think you are worth saving.’”

Touching, but also worthy of an eye-roll. At least, it is for all the guys who are jealous.









Cuoco was equally, uh, romantic in her post, making it clear that she has indeed found a new beau.



“Life lately,” Cuoco wrote, before tacking on some emojis and a quote: “the sun breaks through the clouds, rays of gold slipping into my eyes and heart, rays of yellow to break the grey.”




Cuoco has been married twice, both times to athletes and most recently equestrian Karl Cook, who she split with in September 2021. Before that, she was married to professional tennis player Ryan Sweeting. The pair divorced in 2016.

Interestingly, she recently told Glamour that when it comes to tying the knot, well, forget about it.

“I will never get married again,” Cuoco said. “Absolutely not. You can literally put that on the cover.”

Glamour went ahead and put it on the cover for its April 2022 issue.

That said, Cuoco made it clear she has no qualms with dating.

"I would love to have a long-lasting relationship or a partnership,” she told Glamour. “I believe in love because I’ve had incredible relationships. I know that they’re out there. I like being someone’s partner and having that companionship.”

Relationship, partnership, calling it whatever you want. Cuoco is officially officially off the market, again, with Pelphry being the new man who all the other guys despise. But hey, at least most of us know him as someone whose time has already passed.














Written by
Sam Amico spent 15 years covering the NBA for Sports Illustrated, FOX Sports and NBA.com, along with a few other spots, and currently runs his own basketball website on the side, FortyEightMinutes.com.