Childhood & Education
Sabrina was born on 21 March, 1958 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Shortly after Sabrina’s birth, her family moved to Los Angeles where she was raised along with her brother, Graylan Moore.
She completed her primary education from St. Matthias Catholic Girls High School in Huntington Park, California. She was always fascinated by Shakespeare’s stories. Sabrina never missed an opportunity to play any of the characters from his plays.
By the time she completed her junior college, she had made up her mind to study performing arts which would enable her to make a career in the field. She enrolled herself at the University of California, from where she graduated in the year 1980 with a major in theatre.
She learned all the nuances of stage plays from the Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. She was mentored by American actor, director and founder of the Actors Studio, Robert Lewis. Sabrina was a classmate of future American actors like John Turturro, Charles S. Dutton and Angela Bassett.
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Career
Sabrina started her career with a stage play which was performed in New York. She had a major breakthrough when she auditioned for the American sitcom, ‘The Cosby Show’. During the audition, she beat actress Whitney Houston who was also auditioned for the show.
Sabrina played the role of Sondra Huxtable, the eldest daughter of the family. The show was about the crazy Huxtable family, living a jazzy life in Brooklyn Heights. The series won the hearts of the audience and was voted as the greatest black TV show ever.
Not only was the show successful, but it also made Sabrina hugely popular as her character was loved by one and all. Sabrina played the role of Sondra Huxtable in 52 episodes from 1984 to 1992. She also bagged an award at the 1989 Young Artist Awards under the category, Best Young Actress Ensemble in a TV Comedy, Drama Series or Special.
During the filming of the show, Sabrina studied Professional Interior Designing from the University of California, Los Angeles. After the show went off air, she commenced her interior designing business. In 1986, she appeared in a guest role in the tele series, ‘Hotel’. Next, she appeared in the television movie, ‘Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder’ in 1989. Sabrina continued to make guest appearances in a number of shows including ‘CBS Schoolbreak Special’ in 1990 and ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ in 1993. Six years later, she appeared in one of the episodes of the show, ‘Cosby’.
In 2000, she appeared in the play, ‘Diva Daughters DuPree’ which was performed at the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles. The show was a huge success and she qualified as one of the regular lead performers of Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. In 2002, Sabrina played the role of Titania in the stage adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ which was titled as ‘A Midwinter Night’s Dream’.
She then tried her hand at voice acting by lending her voice to the character Norma Bindlebeep in the 2004 animated series, ‘Fatherhood’. In 2009, she returned to the stage, playing a role in the thriller, ‘The Stalker Within’. Her next theatre was based on Shakespeare's play ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, in which she played Katherine.
Apart from being a part of Shakespeare Theatre Company, she is also associated with Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Arizona Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, San Jose Repertory Theatre and Chautauqua Theatre Company.
Thanks to her knowledge in interior designing, Sabrina got to host two shows related to interior designing –‘In Your Own Backyard’ and ‘Homes with Style’. Sabrina also participated in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and in the Sundance Theatre Lab where she was a script reader and performer.
