You know you've made it when you do an internet search on your name and up pop 170 entries.
Stephanie Cameron has hit the big time.
The former Virginia Beach resident will debut tonight on Fox 43's top-rated prime-time drama "Melrose Place" as Audrey Williams, a nurse with an agenda.
Watch out, Amanda--a.k.a. Heather Locklear. There's a new girl in town.
She's driven. She's ambitious. And she might be after Michael Mancini or Peter Burns, doctors at the hospital where her story line resolves.
But you'll have to tune in tonight to find out.
Cameron, a 1987 Cox High School graduate, was in town last month visiting her friend George Kartis, a photographer who shot her first professional pictures, and chatted about her new role.
"To be working with Aaron Spelling is like a dream come true for me," said Cameron sipping a whole-milk cappucino at the Jewish Mother at the oceanfront with Kartis. "I auditioned and was the last one in the office. It's great working there.
I'm laughing and having fun...It's a blast."
Soap opera fans may remember Cameron as Jennifer Horton Devereaux Blake on NBC's "Days of our Lives", a role she played for three years after replacing Melissa Reeves. That was her first big break, and the memory of her audition is still vivid.
"When I found out that I got the part, I was crying. I was petrified," said Cameron, who since has cut her long, blonde hair and dyed it an auburn shade. "I started the next day. Sometimes I'd start at 5:30 in the morning and not get home till 11 at night. I didn't know what to expect, but everyone on the set was very helpful."
Cameron, a self described klutz and shy kid, never took acting classes while growing up in Virginia Beach's Chesopeian Colony neighborhood with two siblings and her parents, who now live in Kansas City, Kan. She wanted to become a helicopter pilot, a doctor or an interior designer.
But somehow the spotlight found her. Cameron played the snake in a Kings Grant Elementary School production of "The Jungle Book" and also the father, Tevya, in a production of "Fiddler on the Roof."
"They didn't have enough boys," Cameron recalled with a laugh. "I was also an alto."
Like other young girls with stars in their eyes, Cameron began her path to acting via modelling. Kartis discovered Cameron when she was 13, taking her pictures for a modelling school. Those first shots landed her a New York hair salon ad. By the time she was 16, Cameron was smiling for the lens in Paris and the Japan.
She had that indescibable, special look the camera loves, said Kartis. He knew she would make it and predicted that his friend will be a major star someday.
"I talked to an agent in L.A. (for her) and it happened,"he said.
After graduating from high school, Cameron took the high road to Los Angeles. She modeled for Maybelline, Nike and Miller Beer and took acting classes, which led to a career in television commercials. Then she auditioned for Jennifer, and the rest, as they say, is history.
"What's that saying -- overnight successes are 10 years old?" Cameron said. "But I'm not saying I'm an overnight success."
Cameron's manager, Lesley Bader, said that her client has worked hard in the 3 and a half years they have known each other. Cameron will appear in four episodes on "Melrose Place," and plans are in the works for doing two more.
"Stephanie is extremely driven and a very quick study," Bader said from Los Angeles. "She wants to acheive all her goals."
"Getting on 'Melrose Place' is a real stepping stone -- going from daytime to nighttime is very nice."
Cameron spent 10 days visiting Kartis at his Kempsville home over the holidays and enjoyed walking on the beach, going to parties and just hanging out around the house. She also found a great pair of jeans at the Bahama Shop in Hilltop East. And nobody recognizes her.
"When I was on 'Days' I had long, blonde hair," she explained , sweeping away her short, dark tresses." But nobody reognizes me in L.A. either."
Her long-range plans include movie roles. But she's content to be guest-starring in one of the campiest, popular shows on television and is enjoying the ride
"In five years," she said, "I want to be happy and working."
By Pam Starr, Staff Writer of The Virginia Pilot
© 1999 
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