Sara Rebecca Abeles (popularly known as Sara Gilbert) was born January 29, 1975, in Santa Monica, California. Before Gilbert was born, her mother, Barbara Crane, and her late husband Paul Gilbert, adopted two children—Melissa Gilbert and Jonathan Gilbert.
When Gilbert was six years old, she saw her older sister, Melissa, presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work with the hit series Little House on the Prairie. It was then and there Gilbert decided she wanted to be an actress as well.
By the age of seven, after numerous commercials, Gilbert won a role in the made-for-TV production Calamity Jane starring Jane Alexander. Four years later, she won a role in the beloved children’s movie Runaway Ralph. Other "stars before they were stars" included Fred Savage, Kellie Martin, and Summer Phoenix.
It the same year, at just thirteen years old, Gilbert won the role of Darlene Connor on the television series Roseanne. Her TV family included Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and onscreen boyfriend Johnny Galecki. For nine seasons, Gilbert played and perfected her role as the sardonic middle child of Roseanne and Dan Connor. Gilbert’s particular brand of humor was viewed as so essential to the cast’s chemistry that producers rearranged the show’s rehearsals and tapings around her college schedule.
And that schedule proved a rigorous one. Gilbert not only graduated from Yale University, but she did so with honors. She came out with a degree in art, focusing specifically on photography.
During the filming of the show, Gilbert won several impressive roles. In 1990, along with Louis Gossett Jr, she was the lead in Sudie and Simpson. For her standout work at only fifteen, Gilbert won the Young Artist Award.
In 1992, she played the shy high school student opposite Drew Barrymore’s seductive but dangerous character in Poison Ivy. Winning more accolades, Gilbert was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. The film also starred Tom Skerritt, Cheryl Ladd, and a young Leonardo DiCaprio.
Other film roles included Dead Beat in 1994, with Balthazar Getty and Deborah Harry, followed by Broken Record in 1997, and the little seen but highly despised sci-fi comedy Walkin’ on Sunshine: The Movie.
With the end of Roseanne, Gilbert turned her attention to smaller, independent roles such as her work in Desert Blue, opposite Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, and Peter Sarsgaard. She also starred in the very well-received short $30 directed by Christopher Landon.
Gilbert’s higher profile roles included the 1999 drama Light It Up, with Usher Raymond, Forest Whitaker, Rosario Dawson, Judd Nelson, and Vanessa Williams; The Big Tease, with Craig Ferguson, David Hasselhoff, and Drew Carey; Stephen Frears’ hit adaptation of Nick Hornby’s book High Fidelity, starring John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Tim Robbins; and Riding In Cars with Boys, opposite Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Adam Garcia, Brittany Murphy, James Woods, and Rosie Perez.
Gilbert’s real return to stardom, however, was prompted by her numerous works in television. In 2000 she was on the well-liked but short-lived series Welcome to New York, with Christine Baranski and Jim Gaffigan. This was followed by a five-episode turn on 24, with Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Dennis Haysbert, and Elisha Cuthbert as well as another short-lived series entitled Twins, with Molly Stanton and Melanie Griffith. More recently, she appeared on The Class, with Jason Ritter; and ER, with Goran Visnjic, Maura Tierney, Mekhi Phifer, Parminder Nagra, and John Stamos.
In her personal life, Gilbert is a vegetarian and an avid supporter of programs such as Meals on Wheels. With partner Allison Adler, they couple has one child, which Adler carried. Gilbert is currently (extremely) pregnant with the couple’s second child.
YUDDY
