Born and raised in New York City, Sara, the eldest of two daughters, spent most of her childhood backstage with one or both of her parents, who were very active in the Broadway theatre community, both on and off stage.

Her acting career began at age nine, when she was cast to play Kevin Spacey's daughter and Burt Lancaster's granddaughter in the film Rocket Gibraltar. Shortly thereafter she won critical acclaim for her television series debut, starring in the comedy Grand. Since then Sara has appeared as a series regular on various shows, including Phenom, Minor Adjustments, Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane and, most recently, as Carmen Ferrara in Popular. She has also been seen in many guest and recurring roles on shows such as ER, Chicago Hope, Roseanne and Will & Grace, to name a few.

Sara's film career has soared in the past few years. She will star as Lili Taylor's best friend in the upcoming adaptation of Anne Taylor's novel, A Slipping Down Life. She starred as Sigourney Weaver's cellmate in A Map of the World and appeared as a scene-stealing social misfit in Can't Hardly Wait. Sara was cast in Pearl Harbor as a tough-talking nurse. That same summer Sara was cast as the title character Gypsy, an aspiring singer/songwriter and obsessed Stevie Nicks fan, in Gypsy 83.

On stage Rue starred at the Ensemble Studio Theatre's (NYC) one-act festival two years in a row in productions of The Shallow End and Seventh Word, Four Syllables. In conjunction with shooting two television pilots and a feature film in Spring 1999, Sara made her Los Angeles theatre debut at the Matrix Theatre in Wendy McCloud's play, The Water Children, which dealt with the controversial issues of abortion and a woman's right to choose.

Sara enjoys gardening and currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Mischa Livingstone, and their cats, Orange Popsicle #5 — or "Pop," for short — and The Kraken.