Simon Helberg Plays "Maladjusted Genius" In AMC's The Audacity

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Raj and Howard looking uncomfortable in The Big Bang Theory season 1, episode 5

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.

Simon Helberg, who played Howard Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory, reveals he is playing another "maladjusted genius" in his upcoming show The Audacity. The darkly comedic AMC drama series is set in Silicon Valley and follows billionaires and tech bros as their ambitions and egos collide.

During Variety's annual summit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Helberg described his character, Martin Phister, as a former teenage prodigy who is now an adult obsessed with perfecting an artificially intelligent companion. He also hints that the character is a recluse and struggling to raise his teenage daughter. Check out Helberg's comments below:

My character, Martin, like many people probably in the Valley is a bit of a maladjusted genius. Went to Stanford at 15, made a chunk of money early on in tech, and now he spends every waking minute locked in his garage with an AI companion that he’s developing to help alienated teenagers. But he has his own alienated teenager daughter who he completely neglects and all the other people around him too. He’s a bit of a recluse. And there’s loneliness at the heart of all the characters, and they’re all trying to connect, and they’re trying to connect through technology, which has some pitfalls.

The Audacity's Martin sounds somewhat reminiscent of Howard, especially in The Big Bang Theory's earlier seasons before he started dating Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) and slowly began to mature. Like Howard, Martin is brilliant while also being socially challenged and lonely.

As a father and having already made a fortune in the technology industry, Martin is at a different stage of life than Howard was when he was first introduced. However, they seemingly have some of the same core traits and they go about trying to make connections in misguided ways.

Helberg is part of a cast that also includes Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Goldberg, Lucy Punch, Rob Corddry, Meaghan Rath, Paul Adelstein, Everett Blunck, Thailey Roberge, and Ava Marie Telek. Randall Park will also guest star as the CFO of a data mining operation. First-look images of Helberg and other cast members have been by AMC released and can be seen below:

The Audacity is created by Jonathan Glatzer, an Emmy Award-winning producer and writer whose previous credits include HBO's Succession and AMC's Better Call Saul. The overall tone and premise of the ultra-wealthy in competition bears some similarities to Succession, which will likely help with finding an audience.

Glatzer is the showrunner and writer of the series, along with being an executive producer. He is joined by executive producer Gina Mingacci, who previously worked on AMC's Killing Eve. There will be eight episodes, with the first premiering on AMC and AMC+ on April 12, and new episodes will be released weekly.

For Helberg, The Audacity is not his first series since The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019. His credits in more recent years include a voice cameo as Howard in Young Sheldon, reuniting with Rauch in an episode of Night Court, and starring in multiple episodes of American Dad! and Peacock's murder mystery show Poker Face.