When Jim Parsons decided to quit The Big Bang Theory after 12 seasons, he was knocking back some very big money. Parsons, who played Sheldon Cooper, and his original co-stars were reported to be the highest-paid actors on TV, raking in close to $US1 million per episode. But Parsons felt it was time to move on, and the producers felt they couldn’t keep the show going without him. That meant it was time for everybody else to move on too, whether they wanted to or not.

"We cried for hours," Kaley Cuoco, who played Penny Teller, said inThe Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit. "We thought we were going to do another year, so all of a sudden your life kind of flashes before your eyes."

Watch: Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory spin-off.

Since the sitcom’s final episode aired in 2019, the cast have gone on to new hit shows, marriage and babies. With news that another spin-off ofThe Big Bang Theoryis in development, here’s an update on what everyone is up to right now.

Jim Parsons

Parsons didn’t want to keep playing Sheldon inThe Big Bang Theory, but he’s been happy to keep narrating spin-off seriesYoung Sheldonand executive producing it. He’s also been executive producer onCall Me Kat, the sitcom starring Mayim Bialik, who played his wife, Amy Farrah Fowler, onThe Big Bang Theory.

As well, Parsons, who’s been with his partner, producer Todd Spiewak, for two decades (they married in 2017), has chosen to play several gay characters, including in the romance movie Spoiler Alert, which he and Spiewak produced. Up next, Parsons will be heard as the voice of pink cougar Snagglepuss in a new animated series. Parsons toldThe Hollywood Reporterthat Snagglepuss was for him "probably the first gay totem I had without even knowing it – other than Uncle Arthur on Bewitched reruns”.

Johnny Galecki

The Big Bang Theoryfinished with Galecki’s character Leonard Hofstadter expecting a baby with Cuoco’s character Penny. In real life, Galecki and Cuoco had split up years earlier, and Galecki was expecting a baby with his then-partner Alaina Meyer. Son Avery Orbison was born in late 2019, and Galecki and Meyer separated the following year.

Galecki is still popping up in Roseanne spin-offThe Connersas Darlene’s ex-husband David Healy, the role he played in the original Roseanne in the 1990s. Meanwhile, Darlene is still played by Sara Gilbert, who was Leonard’s co-worker Leslie Winkle inThe Big Bang Theory.

Kaley Cuoco

Cuoco went fromThe Big Bang Theoryinto a darker comedy, starring in and executive-producingThe Flight Attendant, which scored her two Emmy nominations. She’s also producer and star of upcoming thriller movieRole Play,which co-stars Bill Nighy.

Cuoco welcomed her first child – a daughter, Matilda – withOzarkactor Tom Pelphrey on March 30 this year. Cuoco and Pelphrey had been a couple for less than a year when Matilda was born. They started dating after Cuoco split from her second husband, equestrian Karl Cook. Cuoco has described Pelphrey as “the incredible man that saved me in all the ways”.