Sheldon Cooper is a character that audiences have come to know over the years thanks to The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, where he was played by Jim Parsons and Iain Armitage, respectively. Through the latter show, audiences got to see the character during his early years as a child prodigy in Texas. While many people think they’ve met or know someone just like Sheldon, there’s always the question of whether the character was actually based on anyone real.