Biographie
Sabrina was exposed early on to the arts in her hometown of Mount Vernon, NY a four-square mile town, renowned for producing talented artists such as JB Smoove, Heavy D. Myers and Denzel Washington and where thespians Ruby Dee and Phylicia Rashad resided.
Sabrina received a B.A. in film from Temple University and quickly moved into motion picture production with a mix of music videos, indie and studio features. Sabrina spent the next twenty-five years building-up her skill set in physical production; she has mastered scheduling, budgeting, production management and cost reporting.
Sabrina credits the emergence of hip-hop with launching her producing career. When MTV and BET were in their infancy stages, and music videos were their bread and butter, Sabrina joined forces with Ralph McDaniels and Lionel C. Martin to form the start-up, Classic Concept Productions, producing the first rap videos for Marley Marls Cold Chillin Crew and Russell Simmons Def Jam. The team became part of a small group of pioneers in the new art form. Sabrina helped build Classic Concept into the premier production house for urban music videos; as well as, Field Producing for the groundbreaking Video Music Box. As Senior Producer, serving as head of production for over 10 years, she oversaw the production of several hundred concept, performance and long-form videos featuring the top Hip/Hop, R&B and New-Jack swing acts of the 80's & 90's; working with a diverse client list ranging from Public Enemy to Bell, Biv, Devoe and Whitney Houston.
Sabrina believes that film is our cultural calling card to the world and that entertainment can be informative and uplifting. She spent the second half of her career working on the production team of noteworthy period films, drawing upon historic American events. Sabrina worked on a dramatized account of the story of The Black Panther Party of Self-Defense aka Panther, to coordinating 2nd Unit elements for the Hughes Bros. Vietnam pic Dead Presidents; and the building and torching of a Black self-sufficient Southern town once known as Rosewood. Even when working on gritty urban dramas -- Waist Deep, Baby Boy & Doing Hard Time -- Sabrina is looking for the humanity in the work she helps bring to the screen.
On the television side of the business, Sabrina joined Roy Campanella's producing team to make the first narrative content for the BET Network, with a slate of (10) television movies (The Arabesque Series). As Coordinating Producer, Sabrina executed a production paradigm requiring the team to develop and produce (10) stand-alone films. They shot back-to-back, prepping one film, while shooting another, and posting a third; while Sabrina provided fiscal and logistical continuity for the slate.
In more recent years, Sabrina has been developing scripted narrative dramas based on literary material and uplifting reality content for screen and online distribution; including 7:33 am the movie - Pitch Reel & Playlist for the Web (2012), the festival short film "Zoo (Volkerschau)" (2015), Monda Raquel Webb's directing debut, as well as, Behind the Scenes, Zoo (Volkerschau) (2015). Sabrina has returned to her training ground of historically based films, telling the story of a human zoo at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, Belgium. She seeks to develop and craft socially impactive, stories to inform and engage national audiences about the little known stories of the 20th century; the very foundation of American society.
Sabrina augmented her education through the years with production and accounting courses at Rockport International Film & Television Workshops, New School for Social Research and UCLA Extension. Sabrina having honed her management skills over the past two decades has married technical and business knowledge with her creative sensibilities for a complete package of producer skills.
