SABRINA THOMPSON
Where Talk and Action Meet
Bold. Innovative. Creative Genius. You could use any these words to describe the newest television personality, Sabrina Thompson, but just one is not enough. You might have to add business owner, producer, jewelry designer, teacher, former NCAA athlete, artist and entertainment industry maven to the mix. Cook it all up and you have one of the freshest faces to enter the small screen this February as she ventures through treacherous jungles on the upcoming season of the CBS hit show SURVIVOR.
Since outsprinting the boys in elementary school, Sabrina has boldly taken risks while always managing to add her creative flare. For instance, while majoring in Communications and competing against world-class athletes as a scholarship student-athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she ignited her entrepreneurial spirit and redesigned old jeans and jewelry to sell to sorority girls for extra cash. While interning at the Ricki Lake Show in New York City during college, she transferred her whimsical design skills to help create dynamic scenes ranging from set design to witty show concepts. After graduation, she headed to live in Brooklyn, NY with $500 and a dream to work in the fast-paced world of television. The bright-eyed workaholic navigated her way into television production and became a leading producer for various television shows for Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures and Court Television Network. As a producer she covered cases that defined our era, including Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, Kobe Bryant and countless others.
Sabrina’s motto, “Action over Talk”, lead her to a life-defining moment. She consciously walked away from television and entered one of the most demanding professions in the world –a public high school teacher.
Sabrina believed she had a higher calling to make more of an impact in society and took a hiatus from the world of television. Following her motto, she was determined to make a difference in the lives of young people through unconventional methods of teaching. She took her television background, creativity and no-nonsense demeanor to the classroom, bringing celebrities and top executives into one of the toughest neighborhoods in Brooklyn to empower students to dream beyond their surroundings.
Just when Sabrina was busy changing the world one student at a time, she launched three powerful entities. Her own business, beanpYe, a successful jewelry company, the Women in Entertainment Empowerment
Network (WEEN), a global coalition of women and men committed to supporting the balanced portrayal of women in the entertainment industry, and her latest visual arts venture, KUU photography.
Many would think education and entertainment are worlds apart, but ask Sabrina what the two have in common and her answer doesn’t surprise. “When I remix the art of teaching business concepts and vocabulary with pop culture, social service projects and photography, it’s about making an exciting connection and let’s be real, that spices things up.”
And spice is what she brings to the island of Samoa as she faces off with other contestants on the 24th season of SURVIVORTM titled SURVIVOR: ONE WORLD. She’s wise and cagey, but won’t hesitate to give you a dose of reality. “I do what I do through the grace of God. I try to live a disciplined, fun, and unconventional life of what I like to do, not what society dictates I should do.”
