Sara Gilbert

FashionDream · April 29, 2011

Sara Gilbert (prono born January 29, 1975) is an American actress best known for her role as Darlene Conner-Healy from 1988–1997 in the U.S. sitcom Roseanne. She created and currently co-hosts the daytime series, The Talk, alongside four other women; discussing controversial topics and contemporary issues. The Talk premiered on October 18, 2010.

Gilbert was born Sara Rebecca Abeles in Santa Monica, California. Her parents are Barbara Crane (née Cowan) and Harold Abeles. Her two older separately-adopted siblings, Melissa Gilbert and Jonathan Gilbert, were stars of Little House on the Prairie. Melissa and Jonathan were both adopted by Barbara and her first husband Paul Gilbert (born Ed MacMahon); Paul died in 1975. Abeles changed her surname to Gilbert to become an actress in 1984.

Television career

Gilbert decided at age six that she wanted to be an actress after her older sister, Melissa Gilbert, got a plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[1] Following appearances in television movies and a commercial for Kool Aid, at the age of thirteen she landed the role of Darlene Conner, the sarcastic middle child, in Roseanne. Sara was a cast member during the show's nine-year run from 1988 to 1997, for which she also wrote a fourth-season episode called "Don't Make Me Over". Her contribution was considered so important to Roseanne that the show's producers juggled storylines and taping schedules to allow her to study at Yale University while remaining part of the cast, shooting remote segments of Darlene at a soundstage in New York.[2] At Yale, she majored in art with an emphasis on photography; she graduated with honors in 1997.

Gilbert has made guest appearances on shows such as The Simpsons, 24, Will & Grace, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Starting in 2004, she had a recurring role as medical student Jane Figler on the long-running hospital drama ER.

She returned to prime time television in the fall of 2005 in the sitcom Twins on The WB network. The sitcom was canceled after one season, when the WB and UPN networks merged to become The CW and had to drop a number of shows. She also had a recurring role on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Class as Fern Velch.

Since 2007 she has appeared in many episodes of The Big Bang Theory on CBS as Leslie Winkle, a scientist friend (with benefits) to the character played by Johnny Galecki, who also portrayed her longtime boyfriend and husband David Healy on Roseanne. Starting with the second episode of the second season of The Big Bang Theory, Gilbert was elevated to the show's main cast, portraying once again a potential love interest of Galecki's character. At the end of January, it was announced that the writers did not know how to write for her character full time and her status was then reduced from regular to recurring.[3]

Gilbert is a co-host and executive producer of The Talk, a talk show which premiered October 18, 2010. Along with Gilbert, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, and Leah Remini are the other co-hosts on this series similar to The View.[4]

Film career

Gilbert has appeared in two films alongside Drew Barrymore, in Poison Ivy in 1992 and Riding In Cars With Boys in 2001. Gilbert also had a feature role in Light It Up in 1999. She has had several other minor roles following Roseanne, including short film $30 (aka 30 Bucks) as part of the Boys Life 3 feature, and High Fidelity. She directed her own short film Persona Non Grata in 1998.

Personal life

In her teens, Gilbert became a vegetarian. Today, she supports numerous organizations such as PETA, Meals on Wheels, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and AIDS Project Los Angeles. She stated on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in November 2008 that she has now adopted a vegan lifestyle.[5]

She has been in a relationship with Allison Adler since 2002, and she came out as a lesbian in 2010.[6] Adler gave birth to the couple's son, Levi Hank, in October 2004[7] and Gilbert gave birth to a daughter, Sawyer, on August 2, 2007.