Mrs. Janine Davis is Caltech's administrator of Human Resources (HRA), the department which enforces political correctness at the school. She is a recurring character in The Big Bang Theory and made her on-screen appearance in "The Egg Salad Equivalency". She is portrayed by Regina King.
Role in the Series[]
Season 6[]
In "The Egg Salad Equivalency", after Sheldon's assistant Alex Jensen files a sexual harassment complaint against Sheldon, Sheldon reports to the HRA with his usual knock as Janine Davis looks perplexed sitting at her desk. She smiles and greets him and tells him about Alex's complaint. Sheldon doesn't see a problem since she has a front row seat as he makes scientific history, string cheese is in his refrigerator and he led his assistant away from a life of promiscuity by showing her pictures of diseased sexual organs. After hearing this, Mrs. Davis nods her head, then calls her secretary and tells her to cancel her next appointment, wisely anticipating that the case with Sheldon "is gonna take a while". The administrator tells Sheldon that he had said things that he shouldn't say in the workplace like calling Alex a slave to her sexual desires and comparing her to an egg salad sandwich. She doesn't know what the egg salad comment means and she just goes with her instincts that that can't be said to another employee. Sheldon replies that he sees the confusion, adding that he was not trying to single her out; he said that all women are slaves to their desires. "Even you. You’re a slave," he says to the black woman. She gives him a look of incredulous disbelief. Sheldon continues that during certain points of her menstrual cycle... The HRA, getting agitated, tells him to shut up. Sheldon is feeling persecuted and throws Howard, Raj, and Leonard under the bus in an attempt to direct her anger away from him. He explains, "Dr. Hofstadter, he was bragging about his sexual desirability to anyone who would listen. You know, and Howard Wolowitz, he spent two years using university resources building a six-breasted sex robot. Oh, and at the office Christmas party, I heard Rajesh Koothrappali refer to you several times as Brown Sugar." Each of his friends receives a call to report to Human Resources. They are sitting outside the HRA's office as Raj is adding alcohol to his coffee in order to speak to her. Howard points out that in years past he and the HRA are on a first-name basis. Sheldon shows up to assist his friends and announces that he is filing a complaint against her because the explicit language she used during his interview made him uncomfortable. She then has all four of them come into the office. It later revealed that Sheldon realized that it was wrong to treat Alex that way and he apologized for that harassment.
In "The Tenure Turbulence", she shows up again as a member of the tenure committee and finds all the potential candidates trying to get in her good graces, at one point causing her to exclaim "Oh God, they're everywhere!"; Sheldon gives her a DVD box set of the miniseries Roots, which is too racist for her, Raj sends her a 90 minute video explaining himself, and Leonard and Kripke go to the gym and work out next to her. Though, Leonard has an asthma attack right after that and Kripke replaces him. Kripke successfully joins Mrs. Davis by telling her that he'd loves to babysit her kids. At the end of the episode, Sheldon apologies to Mrs. Davis for his racist gift, which he later acknowledges that from his girlfriend Amy Farrah Fowler. Mrs. Davis tries to do a handshake with Sheldon, but he gives her a hip African-American handshake, leaving her uncomfortable and goes back in her office, saying that she is going to pretend that didn't happen.