Biography
Born Sabien Kenney on January 12th,1977 in Rock Island, Illinois, located on the Mississippi River in the heart of America's mid-west. Now known as Sabien Minteer, he is the oldest sibling of a blue-collar, inter-racial family, and is half Native American. By the age of 6, he had become determined to pursue and become an actor of stage and film, after having consistently shown family and friends that he was a natural performer, he began to hone his studies of acting, physical comedy and slapstick, while often mimicking the great Vaudevillian performers of the golden age. Greats such as Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx Brother's, and Hal Roaches works were some of his greatest influences, along with modern day comedians of the time like Andy Kaufman, John Belushi, and Richard Pryor, who are also beloved by him. Any performer who pushed the limits of what most people believe is reality, or possible, were of great influence to his passion and style of performance at an early age. And it was perhaps the genius of Hollywood stuntman Dar Robinson, who until today still inspires him when it comes to physical work on stage and screen. Along with observing and memorizing theatrical techniques, finding and reading books by Stanislavski, and Strasberg while closely dissecting film works, and the actions of many actors of the golden and silver age, who were of his earliest and most influential passions as a child. By the age of 9, he had branched out, becoming even more driven toward his dream, learning from and emulating modern day actors like Kurt Russell, Pacino, and Deniro, while still dissecting the work's of silver age greats like Brando, Dean, Hepburn, McQueen, Tony Curtis, and many others, along with passionately studying song & dance, and great song & dance men like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Elvis. Then, after feeling confidently prepared, in the fall of 1986 he began his acting career with a lead performance in a musical on a community stage, which resulted in a rave review of his abilities. After many years of theatrical performances, upon graduating high school, and in effort to serve our nation, he entered the U.S. Army and served in active duty, as an infantry soldier. He was injured while serving our nation, sustaining an injury which would lead him to being honorably discharged from service. After being told by military doctors that he may never walk again, he persevered, surpassing all obstacles in his way and reclaimed full use of his physical body. Bouncing back from injury, he entered into college to continue his acting training. He studied & trained briefly in schools, training in method acting under one of Stella Adler's great Chicago method acting successes, Jack Downing. Then he studied meisner technique at Act 2 in Chicago, under Syd Moore. After successful training, his professor's advised him that he was more than equipped with the talent to be performing professionally, and advised it may be best to leave school to seize his dream, which he quickly did without fail. In 2003, after performing for over 17 years in numerous stage productions across the country, including some minor work in studio film, he made the decision to concentrate his efforts on an aspiring career in the motion picture industry. Since then he has taken on lead & supporting roles in numerous award-winning independent and foreign films, and has been blessed with acquiring a number of small roles, in award-winning studio films. He has been acting now for over 26 years, and continues to amass larger roles in Independent & Studio film's every year. Along with his passion for acting, he holds many other artistic talents which have led to success. At the age of 7, he was honored with a Golden Seal Young Authors Award by the state of Illinois, for being one of the most talented young authors of his age. He is a distinguished member of The International Society of Poets, and is on file with the Library of Congress for his numerous published works. Sabien is also an accomplished vocalist, a 1 st Tenor/ Counter Tenor who over the years has been blessed with performing with such musical greats as Roberta Flack, Sheena Easton, and many others. An accomplished musician as well, he is proficient with numerous instruments ranging from blue's harmonica, acoustic, electric and bass guitar, keyboard, and drums. He is also an artist of painted works with an emphasis in the abstract and surrealist medium's, along with pastel & sketch as well.
