Actor
A graduate of Yale University's School of Drama, Sabrina LeBeauf auditioned against Whitney Houston for the role of oldest daughter Sondra on The Cosby Show. Although she didn't appear on the show until partway through the first season, LeBeauf remained a stalwart cast member throughout the run of the series.After The Cosby Show's run, LeBeauf took a hiatus from acting to pursue a career as an interior designer. In 1999, she marked her return to the world of TV with a guest appearance on Cosby. Since then, she has toured with the production The Diva Daughters Dupree, while continuing to build her design business.
Character
Sondra Tibideaux (née Huxtable), the eldest daughter of Cliff and Clair, did not appear on screen until mid-way through season one. She did not exist in the pilot episode (Clair: "Why do we have four children?" Cliff: "Because we did not want five.") In her first appearance, she is a sophomore in college, and she is once noted as being two years older than Denise, making her around 18 or 19 years old and putting her birth year around 1966. She earned a degree from Princeton University and had intentions of pursuing a career as a lawyer, like her mother. She married her boyfriend, Elvin Tibideaux, in season four, and later gave birth to twins-a boy and a girl-named after Nelson and Winnie Mandela. More serious, earnest and responsible than the other children, Sondra fits many of the characteristics of the first born from a large family. Though she had her moments of bizarre thinking (e.g. dropping out of law school to open up a wilderness store with Elvin), she'd usually snap out of them relatively quickly. Because of her intelligence level and overachieving nature, she's looked upon by her parents proudly, but also is held to a higher standard than the rest of the children.
Sondra was created when Bill Cosby wanted the show to express the accomplishment of successfully raising a child (e.g. a college graduate). Whitney Houston was considered for the role of Sondra Huxtable. Sabrina LeBeauf almost missed out on the role because she is only 10 years younger (b. 1958) than Phylicia Rashad (b. 1948).
The character is loosely based upon Cosby's eldest daughter, Erika, who was approximately the same age as Sondra.
