South Florida Actress Elissa Kapneck Up For Daytime Emmy For Her Work On Popular CBS Soap Opera

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The 47th annual Daytime Emmy Awards will air Friday night as a live two-hour show.

A young South Florida actress has received a nomination for her guest appearance on the popular CBS soap opera.

Elissa Kapneck, who was born and raised in Boca Raton, has been an avid soap opera fan since she was a child. Her dream was to be on one and years after moving to Los Angeles to fulfill that dream she got the call, and an audition, for a guest appearance on "The Young and the Restless."

She said the call couldn't have come at a better time.

"I was actually about to give up. I had been acting my whole life," she said. "I told my mom if I book this it's a sign to stay. If not, I'll come home. When I got this call it wasn't like my dream had come true. It relit the fire and it was awesome."

Her first scene was with actors considered soap opera royalty.

"The character was good and it was so well written and it was really heavy. My first scene was with Eric Braeden and Melody Thomas Scott who are like the king and queen of daytime," said Kapneck.

She was cast as Sasha, a young homeless mom, who had to give up her baby because she couldn't afford to take care of it and then came back to claim her.

"I think homelessness is such a thing that is happening right now and we really need to look at so many things going on in the world. So it was really kind of cool to be a part of this and be in this beautiful storyline," she explained.

Kapneck's role on earned her a 2020 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Performer in a drama series.

"There are so many rounds, like hundreds of people. It's every single guest star from all the soaps for the entire calendar year. Some of the people that I'm up against have a 16 episodes arc or 30 episode arc, so I feel very fortunate after one episode to be where I'm at," said Kapneck.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Friday night's show will air as a virtual event.

"I would love to throw a huge watch party, but I'm also a germaphobe so that's not gonna happen. So I'm going to have a couple of girlfriends over. Then I'll be Zooming with my family which is probably going to be just as entertaining as the awards," she said.

We wish her the best of luck!

Kapneck said she's hoping this leads to a regular, full-time job on the soap opera.

The 47th annual Daytime Emmy awards at 8 p.m. on CBS.