Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali is a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Kunal Nayyar. He is Howard Wolowitz's best friend and one of the central characters. He works in the Physics department at Caltech, where his area of expertise is particle astrophysics.

For his discovery of a planetary object beyond the Kuiper Belt (which he named "PlanetBollywood"), he was included in People magazine's "30 Under 30" to watch, and thus received a larger office for his work, granting him some form of celebrity status. As with Wolowitz, the others in his circle of friends often refer to him by his surname. He is of Indian origin and yet despises Indian food.

Just like Wolowitz, he also has a love for Stephen Hawking. He approaches women in the exact opposite way to Wolowitz: he is so shy that he is unable to speak in front of them unless he is intoxicated or does not feel he is directly addressing them, however, he is able to speak around female family members, if the women are part of a crowd or if he is unaware of their presence. His social anxiety around women seems to be indicative of selective mutism, and is inspired by a former coworker of Bill Prady's.

Once, when Penny spoke to him, he voiced a lengthy inner monologue, reminiscing of his native customs and singing. More often than not, though, he just stays silent. Alcohol appears to suppress his social anxiety, since he is capable of prolonged conversations with women after drinking, however it also tends to make him arrogant and boorish.

However, the alcohol itself doesn't seem to allow him to speak, but rather a placebo effect takes place. Raj can apparently talk to women if he thinks he's been drinking as shown when he talked to Summer Glau while drinking non-alcoholic beer, but the moment he finds out the truth of the placebo he reverts back to his normal self. Unlike the rest of his friends, it has been shown that while "drunk" (and in one case even when in his typical mute manner) he has a greater aptitude with women than his friends.

One of the clearest examples of this is his interaction with Summer Glau, who he was able to keep enthralled for several hours, while the others had no repore with her at all. In the episode the Griffin Equivalency, after being a total jerk to Penny while drunk, he tries to apologize through a note. Penny refuses saying she wants an actual apology with words.

He manages to utter a very high-pitched "Sorry", which is accepted. An experimental anti-anxiety drug enabled him to talk fluently to women, but had side effects on his motor controls and mannerisms. Eventually, the drug wore off at the wrong moment: when Sheldon's sister Missy, who had rebuffed Leonard and Wolowitz, admitted that she was attracted to Koothrappali and had been hoping he would ask her out.

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