Gabourey Sidibe Keeps The Magic Going In Showtime’s ‘The Big C’

First Published: July 29, 2010 4:45 PM EDT Credit: Getty Images

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Caption Gabourey Sidibe sports blue at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 7, 2010 Gabourey Sidibe is pinching herself over her unexpected life, which includes an Oscar nomination and a new TV series.

At a meeting Thursday of the Television Critics Association in Beverly Hills, Sidibe described herself as a “middle-of-the-lane, very normal” person who’d planned to be a receptionist.

The 27-year-old Sidibe said it’s been a “strange year” that’s included her Academy Award nod for her role as a teenager who rises above abuse in “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push’ by Sapphire” and her co-starring role in Showtime’s “The Big C.”

The comedy-drama stars Laura Linney as a schoolteacher confronting a terminal-cancer diagnosis. Sidibe plays a smart-alec student.

“The Big C” debuts 10:30 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 16, on Showtime.

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