Sara Gilbert's Real Name: Sara Rebecca Abeles

Quick answer: Sara Gilbert's documented original name is Sara Rebecca Abeles. Encyclopedia.com lists that form and dates her birth to January 29, 1975, in Santa Monica, California. Biography.com independently records Sara Rebecca Abeles and the same date and city (Encyclopedia.com; Biography).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Sara Gilbert. Encyclopedia.com gives the original name as Sara Rebecca Abeles; Biography.com also uses Sara Rebecca Abeles. Both sources place the birth on January 29, 1975, in Santa Monica. Encyclopedia.com names her parents as Harold Abeles, an attorney, and Barbara Crane Gilbert, a manager and producer, and notes a later stepfather, the publicist Warren Cowan. Biography.com describes her as part of a family already working in show business and says her older half-siblings, Melissa and Jonathan Gilbert, were child actors on Little House on the Prairie. She later attended Yale, graduating in 1997 with a B.A. in art and a concentration in photography. Encyclopedia.com independently records a Yale B.A. with honors in 1997 and a 1991 Young Artist Award for the cable special Sudie and Simpson.

Career highlights

Encyclopedia.com dates her role as Darlene Conner Healy on Roseanne to 1988–97 and lists Young Artist Awards and Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series in 1993 and 1994. Biography.com likewise treats Darlene as her signature part and records film work including Poison Ivy (1992)—which brought an Independent Spirit Award nomination, Encyclopedia.com says—and Riding in Cars with Boys (2001). After Yale she appeared in Welcome to New York (2000–2001), had recurring roles on 24 and ER, and later appeared on The Big Bang Theory, Biography.com notes. Encyclopedia.com also lists later series work including Twins (2005–2006) and The Class (2006–2007), and says she began as a child in television commercials. Biography.com adds the 2014 series Bad Teacher and a regular role on Living Biblically. Encyclopedia.com also notes animal-rights activism among her off-screen interests. Biography.com also records that she wrote a fourth-season Roseanne episode, "Don't Make Me Over," and that a later Roseanne reboot premiered on March 27, 2018, after which she continued in The Conners. She created the daytime series The Talk and, Biography.com says, co-hosted it from its 2010 debut until her departure in 2019.

Name notes for searchers

Sara Rebecca Abeles is the documented original name in Encyclopedia.com; Biography.com also uses Sara Rebecca Abeles. The professional name is Sara Gilbert. Searchers looking for Darlene on Roseanne, for Leslie on The Big Bang Theory, or for the creator of The Talk are usually aiming at the same person.