Sabrina Culver is an actress, both on film, television and theater, she owns a film production company and has sat as a judge at numerous film festivals, but we bet if you asked her what her most important role has been, she would without hesitation tell you, it is as the mother to her son and daughter. According to IMDB she has appeared in eighty-one films, and television episodes, has produced, co-produced and executive produced eleven more and that is not counting her theatrical performances and the commercials she has been cast in. We should also note that although she did not completely walk away from acting while she focused more on her children when they were younger, she did slow down her career for a time. She wants you to know however, she is in full steam ahead mode once again and that should make many directors smile, because she is a very good actress. Afterall how many people do you know that get cast as a young Norma Jean Baker (Marilyn Monroe), more on that later.

As this goes to publication she was beginning to shoot a television series, but that is under wraps and for another day.

Sabrina Culver grew up near New York City, but now lives in Amsterdam, the second time in her life that she has made Europe her home. Much of her early creative interests were inspired by her father who played piano, sang and acted.

“He really encouraged my sister, brother and me to be involved in the arts. My brother was not as interested, but my sister is a great pianist. She is probably better than I am. I used to sing Broadway show tunes and my dad would play (the piano).

He would also take me to every single Broadway show in New York City. It was a passion of mine and it was a passion of his. It was a great way to bond. I knew as soon as I saw my first Broadway show that I wanted to get into this business.

I went to piano lessons my whole childhood. I continued to play and evolved into musical theater. When I was in high school, I was often asked to accompany the school play and sometimes also to be in the school play. This is something that I loved and it connected me to my father. We were heavily involved in community theater and a lot of it was musical theater. 

I had the acting bug. It doesn’t go away. I still have it. It was alive and kicking back then and my father had it too. My brother would ask me, why would you ever want to go on stage? Why would you ever want to be on TV? I said wouldn’t you want to be famous if you were given the chance? Wouldn’t you want to be on TV or in the movies or something? He said no, absolutely not. Many people in my family now who are not interested in theater or in films. They don’t understand my intense desire,” she says.

Sabrina Culver’s first break came when she was eleven years old or almost anyway, it was a different break than she was expecting.

She explains, “It sure did. I was a little troublemaker and I was jumping up and down on the bed with my sister. I think I was really nervous and excited. It was really exciting for me to go into New York City and to work on a (toothpaste) commercial and be on TV. It was also an (opportunity) to show the mean kids at school, not everybody was mean, that I too could be really special.

Anyway, I sabotaged myself by jumping on the bed and in fact I chipped my tooth. When I showed up for the job they sent me home. My perfect smile wasn’t perfect anymore. I think on some level I was too nervous or too afraid.

In high school I was involved in musical theater and theater in general.

Sabrina Culver attended Emerson College in Boston after graduating from high school, and she talks about that experience, “For me it was really great, because it was a little bit like Fame, the TV show or the film Fame. (she beautifully sings two lines of the song). For me it was really exciting to go to a theater school and study musical theater. Some of my friends were talking about their science classes, chemistry or physics or whatever and I was there for (the part of the curriculum) performance for musical theater. (I also studied) set design and things like that.  I loved it and I loved being in school there. They have been quite a few alumni who have gone on to do really big things (such as Norman Lear, Henry Winker, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno).

A lot of my friends wanted to pursue something in acting, but it wasn’t considered to be practical. I was lucky, because my parents encouraged this with me. If you go to a theater school it is almost like going to summer camp. It was for me, because it is something I was so passionate about.”

Then came her big break, well…not quite, for young actors it seems there is often an almost.

She explains, “I auditioned for and was given the role for Marilyn Monroe to be a young Norma Jean and I got the part. It was really exciting and we went into pre-production. I really got interested in Marilyn Monroe and I was studying her mannerisms and her life. This opened a lot of doors for me even though in the end (it wasn’t released) and it was ironically titled Broken Dreams (that is the almost). This was a broken dream, because we were all set to go and in the end the money fell through. We were featured in Variety.  It opened a lot of doors for me (because of) the fact that I had booked that role. Every agent and their mother were trying to send their clients for these roles, especially for a juicy part like that. Even though we ended up not making the film, it was very exciting. It was exciting enough for me to drop out of Emerson College, which was maybe or maybe not a mistake. I was in my senior year when I booked that film. I thought wow, this is it, I have really arrived. I got an agent, a manager and I was in New York and I was off and running.”

The twin films Removed and Remember My Story written by Nathanael and Christina Matanick and directed by Nathanael, starring Abby White as Zoe Locke and Sabrina Culver as the birth mother are fictional short films, but provide a social commentary on shortcomings in the foster care system.

“I can remember this vividly. The director, Nathanael Matanick called me and he said we have a film and we are interested in having you play the birth mother. I looked online and I saw his projects from before. I was so touched by his story about the foster care system in America and its shortcomings. They were coming from the perspective of people who were interested in opening up their homes to foster children. Kids do age out of the system. It was beautifully done. He said we don’t have any budget really. They did have the budget for great amazing cameras, great locations in Santa Barbara  and a lot of passionate people who believe in Nathaniel and his wife Christina, their story and message. All the actors were so great, especially the little girl who plays my daughter (Abby White). She was a natural. This was her first film. I could have said no, but I am never one who says no. A lot of people have been talking lately about don’t ever say yes to no pay. I have never been an actress for the money. Honestly, I am saying that and it’s true. Many people that I have worked with can attest to the fact for me it is never about the money. It is about the story, the message, and the opportunity.

I am so glad that I said yes to that one. He was a tremendous director. It turned out this film was such a beautiful film and it touched so many people. They implemented it into the school system, first in Los Angeles and then throughout the country and (later) throughout the world. I was in Rome and I was in a cafeteria when someone came out from the kitchen and he asked me for my autograph. He recognized me. So many people have seen that movie. I think fifty million saw it the first year.  So many people said their lives were touched. People wrote and said because of that film they decided to go through the foster system and find older children. It changed the trajectory of their lives. People who had been through the foster system wrote how much this movie had touched them, spoke to them or how it was their experience. It is beautiful and I am so proud of those films.

I am so happy to be a part of this film that touches people and that changes lives,” she says reflectively.

We wondered if having a son and daughter has factored into the evolution of Sabrina Culver as an actor.

“Oh yes, for sure. My life would be so different. I am so grateful that I have my wonderful children. It is very grounding. I think some of my friends are still waiting for that. They are saying one day they will have children. People have an illusion of life that they are going to gain so much weight if they become pregnant. Of course it is true. Some of the roles that I have had that are my favorite parts I couldn’t have done without the experience of being a mother. It has given me a tremendous amount of empathy and of nurturing. They teach me so much constantly.

I have been thinking recently about when I first got started. Now I am starting to tip my toe back in to more permanent acting. I never left the business, but I am getting more into it as my kids are getting older. They are still my babies and they are still in school, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can see where it is possible for me to travel more for work. If people ask me to do an extended trip for a movie or TV show I can do it now, without fearing the kids are going to be lost without me.

This brings me to thinking about when I first got started. I had that Marilyn Monroe film and I was so excited about that. It opened so many doors for me, but then when I went to the casting agencies and they would send me on auditions, they would say something like okay you are twenty-eight years old (for the role) and I was twenty or twenty-one. They would say you are twenty-eight or thirty and your husband has just been diagnosed with Parkinsons or I think in one case it was Lou Gehrig’s disease. I had no concept of what that would be. I had never been married and I had never been in a situation like that. I couldn’t find the emotion. Sometimes the feedback would be we really like her and she has a really great look. She is really interesting, but she is a bit green. One casting director said we like her, but she is just not right yet. She is too green. Have her do some theater and have her come back in a couple of years. I remember thinking oh god a couple of years I will be ancient. I was so young and I thought if I have to wait until I am twenty-two, I will never make it.

Now when I have auditions boom, I am there. They can throw pretty much anything at me. I can find almost any emotion now. It informs me now. 

The roles that I am being considered for (now) are much juicier and much more interesting than I thought they would be. I thought it would just be the boss or the grandmother, but the parts I am being offered are really interesting and I can sink my teeth into them. I don’t think that would be the case in America,” she tells us. 

She provides an additional comment about the changing attitudes in North American filmmaking, “I find it very encouraging that people who (previously) have never been considered for a major award are now being celebrated (she mentions Demi Moore), especially, as I am getting older. It is something that everyone has to deal with. I think these people are forging the way.

I produced a film and I starred in it and called New Skin. We made it not that long ago, but enough long ago that I was already concerned about getting older and aging out of the business. This movie was a horror movie and it deals with this in kind of a funny way. This is one woman’s solution.”

As a model and an actress and now as a producer, it would be difficult to imagine many other career choices when a person has to face rejection or the possibility of reject as often, so we wondered, how does Sabrina Culver those situations when they come up.

(She laughs lightly) “I am laughing, because I was booked for something on Friday and then they cancelled me. They said don’t worry you are still going to get paid, but they said they went with someone else. My daughter said, mom what do you always tell me? It is not personal. This was more like a modeling job than an acting job. It still stings, but I have gotten used to it. I realize that all of these cliches are like when one closed door opens  the door for something more interesting (opens) and it is always true. When Broken Dreams was not made, in retrospect I wouldn’t say I was grateful for that, but I was definitely grateful for even having the testing in which they gave me the role. It is not that they gave the part to someone else. It is just they didn’t find the money to make the movie.

I am always curious as a producer, because now I see sometimes people who are doing really well in films and on TV that I had the opportunity to cast in films that I produced and I think, oh man, look at that person shine. I have had the opportunity as a producer if they call me and ask what did I do wrong? Can I have another chance. Often times it is just something so slight or it is a chemistry thing with the main actor and it needs to be a good fit. It doesn’t mean the person is not a good actor. (circling back to the original question she says) I just pick myself up and move on.”

For me the most accurate representation (of the life of an actor) would be Fame or Chorus Line, which was on Broadway and was one of the first plays I was able to be in. I think of all the lyrics to the song and I think I hope I get it. How many people are there? All the things that we think when we leave the casting office. I really need this job.

This is why I love Broadway so much. It is corny, but I love the words. (There is) a song by Anna Kendrick “Climbing Uphill,” (Editor’s note: from the musical The Last Five Years. Anna Kendrick performed it in the 2015 film adaptation.) That song touched me so much and resonated with me. It is how I really felt that I sucked. I just had a casting last week and I submitted it and I am waiting to hear back. If I get it, I will be so, so happy. The best thing to do is to put the work into it and you find the character and then you have to let it go. If I don’t get it, I just have to realize there will be another project. If I do my best maybe they will consider me for another role.”

Another aspect of Sabrina Culver’s career and still relatively new occurs when she acts as a judge at film festivals.

“The Studio City Film Festival (California) was the first festival where I was asked to participate as a judge. In 2023 I was invited to attend as an honorary guest / artist to the Assa International Film Festival in Morocco and it was such a tremendous experience Each trip to another part of the world feeds me and enriches my writing and I meet new and talented people with a different world view 

I have lost track of how many film festivals I have attended in Europe but I find them very useful and interesting because of the doors that they have opened for me both as an actress and a producer. 

I think I will always want to be active in some sort of theater or TV or films. Even if it is going to be my budding film festival judgeship or however you would call that. I have been so fortunate, because I have been traveling the world and participating as a judge in the Asian TV Awards, which is like their Emmy Awards. They have something like fifty million viewers or more.

I was in Indonesia last year and I participated first as a judge and then also as a presenter, which was very exciting and thrilling to go on stage and be on TV in Asia. Because it is not acting, I was a bit nervous if I would be able to do it. It actually felt really comfortable and exciting.  As my career is ebbing and flowing and going in different directions, I am certainly open to whatever the universe is presenting to me. I have been to Morrocco, Tunisia (The Medenine International Film Festival), Oman for the Muscat International Film Festival and I have been invited back to Morrocco this year. Unfortunately, it conflicts with the time that I am going to be in Jakarta again for the Asian TV Awards. It is pretty exciting,” she says.

In discussing both roles that come easier to Sabrina Culver and those that she has to work at a little bit more she says, “Often, I am asked to play a mother in a troubled situation or in a troubled relationship or the abused or battered woman or the drug addict (those are more challenging). If it is a role when my character is very sensitive or emotional or if I play a character that is very close to how I really am of course it is a lot easier. In fact, my audition from last week I had to be a really, really bitchy character, almost a sociopath, a person who has no empathy or feelings and who only considers herself. This was a challenge. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but that is not me. I shouldn’t have sent the audition to a friend of mine to look at, because then they said, oh my gosh, you think this is a bitch, because this is not a bitchy character at all. She said you have to step up the nastiness in a major way. For me that is hard. Yet, a lot of times in my life, especially when I was younger, I was asked to play these roles, because I guess I had a certain look that people would associate with someone who would be arrogant, conceited or snooty or something.

In fact, I auditioned to play the wicked witch (Wizard of Oz) and I worked so hard on this role and I thought it was perfect for me. It was my dream and then no matter what I said to these people they only wanted me as Glenda the good witch. Even though I did not audition for Glenda the good witch, I still got the role. It is so frustrating.

I was in Japan working on a film and it was really cold, but thank god the production team was so kind, loving and nurturing. They came out with handwarmers for us and gave us our coats to wear in between shots. This was challenging physically.

When I was in Italy working on a TV series and I had to be emotional in almost every shot that was not only emotionally draining, but it was difficult to sustain.”

Sustainable filmmaking is something that Sabrina Culver is an advocate for and she offers up some suggestions, “Recycling, donating food from craft service (this is the food available for the cast and crew on set) rather than tossing it. (We can) work digitally more often sharing (electronic documents) through Dropbox, Google Drive or similar instead of paper scripts and using tablets. Carpooling or using public transit, if possible,” and she offers up several other suggestions.”

Sabrina Culver recently finished shooting the television series The Sound of Money. Riveting Riffs Magazine hopes to tune in.

In preparing for our conversation with Sabrina Culver we watched some of her films, we plan to watch more, as much for the fact that she is a terrific actress, but she is also a terrific person, kind, grateful, and she is the kind of person you just want to see continue to succeed. She brings good values to her lifestyle and that translates to how she treats other people. Return to Our Front Page

 Top photo the property of the producers of The Sound Of Money and is protected by copyright © All Rights Reserved. In the photo - Left to Right Onno Van Gelder, Sabrina Culver, Anna Ohanian

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This interview by Joe Montague  published  July 14th, 2025 is protected by copyright © and is the property of Riveting Riffs Magazine All Rights Reserved.  All photos and artwork are the the property of  Sabrina Culver unless otherwise noted and all  are protected by copyright © All Rights Reserved. This interview may not be reproduced in print or on the internet or through any other means without the written permission of Riveting Riffs Magazine.