Sabien Minteer
- Actor
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.