From getting an Ivy League degree to creating a show, she’s accomplished a lot since the sitcom
As Darlene Conner, the middle child on the trailblazing sitcom Roseanne, Sara Gilbert became a ’90s teen icon. Beloved for her sarcasm, Darlene stood out as one of the most relatable characters on TV at the time, and she has influenced many an acerbic teen outsider who came in her wake. Gilbert was just 13 when she landed the role, and from 1988 to 1997, we saw her grow up onscreen, going from a sassy teen to an accomplished young woman.
Gilbert reprised her signature role in the 2018 Roseanne reboot and the subsequent spinoff The Conners, from 2018 to the present. The Conners was renewed for its seventh and final season earlier this year, so we’re taking a look back at how the actress got her start and what else she’s been up to outside of the beloved show.
Destined for showbiz
Sara Gilbert grew up in a showbiz family. Her maternal grandfather, Harry Crane, was a creator of the classic sitcom The Honeymooners, and her two older adopted half-siblings on her mother’s side are none other than Little House on the Prairie stars Melissa and Jonathan Gilbert.
In a Deadline interview, Sara said that seeing her siblings’ success inspired her. “I was really jealous, so I wanted in on that,” she said. “I also just had this overwhelming sense that I was supposed to be an actor; like, I just knew it.”
Prior to being cast in Roseanne, Gilbert appeared in a Kool-Aid commercial and an episode of The Magical World of Disney, and at 13, she got the role that would define her career. Looking back on when she got the role, she said, “I wouldn’t say I was very mature, although I thought I was like an adult, as most 13-year-olds do. Honestly, I didn’t really love being in regular school, so anything that put me in a more creative environment was a plus.”
Roles outside of Roseanne
While starring on Roseanne, Gilbert made her movie debut in the 1992 erotic thriller Poison Ivy, playing a wealthy teen who develops an intense friendship with a bad girl (played by Drew Barrymore at the height of her real-life bad girl phase). She then appeared in the 1994 film Dead Beat.
Gilbert also went to Yale while on Roseanne and managed to balance her college workload with the demands of TV. After Roseanne ended in 1997, the year she graduated, Gilbert appeared in Desert Blue (1998) and The Big Tease and Light It Up (both 1999).
She then had supporting roles in High Fidelity (2000) and Riding in Cars With Boys (2001). Reflecting on being cast in High Fidelity, Gilbert said, “[Director] Stephen Frears saw me in something else so he cast me. I was like, that is so bizarre that this huge director wants to cast me. He had no idea what Roseanne was or didn’t recognize me from that at all. I remember being excited that someone liked something else that I did because I was mainly known for Roseanne.”
Gilbert also had further TV success in between the end of Roseanne and the beginning of the reboot, with multi-episode appearances in shows like 24 (2002), ER (2004-2007) and The Big Bang Theory (2007-2016) among others.
What Sara Gilbert has been doing lately
Currently, Gilbert, now 49, is gearing up for the final season of The Conners, and she’s also shown her talents outside of acting since the ’00s. From 2001 to 2004 she wrote for the documentary series Dogs With Jobs, and in 2010, she created the daytime show The Talk, which she also hosted from its debut to 2019. She called the popular female-centered talk show “a little ray of light in the world,” and it’s still on the air with a new slate of celebrity hosts.
Gilbert is also the executive producer of the upcoming series The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh and has served as the executive producer of The Conners since it started in 2018. Outside of The Conners, she most recently acted in the movie 80 for Brady in 2023.
While Gilbert has had impressive success throughout her career, and shown her capabilities in multiple different formats, she’s remained modest, saying, “I would love to take credit for being able to make a TV show successful, but so often there are elements outside of your control. You do your best and then stars align, or they don’t.”
There have been ups and downs in Gilbert’s career, from the challenges of trying to be known for something other than Roseanne to the very public controversies around Roseanne Barr, leading the Roseanne reboot to be canceled and The Conners to be created in its wake, but it’s clear that she’s come out on top and avoided all the typical pitfalls of child stardom.
