Tam Nguyen

Tam Nguyen is a Vietnamese teenage boy who was also the childhood friend and classmate of Sheldon Cooper. Tam is Sheldon's only friend.

Character Info
Tam is a pessimistic, short-tempered Vietnamese American boy who attends the same high school as Sheldon. He is the first friend in high school that Sheldon ever made, although their friendship is rocky at best. Before he attended high school, Sheldon allegedly drove away all his other friends for being too annoying and whiny.

He laments his difficult childhood in war-torn Vietnam which includes his father having been in detention camp and his encounter with the KKK while first arriving in America. Tam may or may not have PTSD, given he has difficulty getting over such traumatic events and he takes his frustration out on other people, such as Sheldon's father George.

He tends to lose his temper at Sheldon a lot, but in his defense Sheldon often unnecessarily whines a lot, although Tam does this too. When Sheldon simply stated, "I'm not hungry", Tam responds that no one in Vietnam would ever say those words. Also when Tam referred to the American war effort as the "wrong side" of the Vietnam War, George Sr. claims he's concerned about Tam calling the Americans the wrong side, before Tam angrily asserts he was just being polite when clearly he's not.

In S01E15, Tam develops a crush on Libby, a black female student for her affinity in geology. However, when he went to go see an IMAX film with her and tried to put his arm around her neck, she snapped back and rejected his romantic advances. Not wanting to get physically attacked by her, Tam came running back to Sheldon.

Trivia

 * Tam is Sheldon's only friend and pretty soon he will see his true colors and would want to get away from him.
 * Tam is possibly an illegal immigrant, since he stated he and his family arrived to America in a runaway refugee boat.
 * Tam is like a Vietnamese version of Stuart in Young Sheldon.
 * Tam is like a Vietnamese version of Leonard Hofstadter in Young Sheldon.
 * Mostly he is 5 or 6 years older than Sheldon Cooper.
 * A grown up Tam will appear in an upcoming episode in season 12 of The Big Bang Theory.