Gema's Gemini nomination a 'real honor'
JEFF MAHONEY
News Wednesday, January 18, 1995

Gema Zamprogna is thrilled about her Gemini Award nomination. Now would someone please make her exams go away so she can enjoy it.
The 18-year-old Hamilton actress, who stars as Felicity King on CBC's Road To Avonlea, learned yesterday about her nomination the minute she walked in the door after coming home from school. Her parents, Lou and Pauline Zamprogna who run The Dance Centre in Hamilton, couldn't wait to tell her.
"I just found out, but the only thing on my mind is my first semester exams," said Ms Zamprogna, a Grade 13 student at Hillfield-Strathallan College.
"Maybe in a week or a week and a half, when the exams are over, it'll really sink in. But it's a real honor, to be recognized that way."
It's the second Gemini nomination for Ms Zamprogna in the six seasons she has been a regular in the cast of Avonlea.
"I had a nomination in the second or third season. I was up for the same category as Sarah Polley (Ms Zamprogan's co-star on Road To Avonlea.)
"She won it, which was great, because we worked pretty closely together."
This year Ms Zamprogna is nominated for best actress in a supporting role for her performance in the episode Thursday's Child of Road To Avonlea.
"I was a bit surprised because of the show they chose it (the nomination) for, but after thinking a bit more about that episode, I could see it."
The episode, she says, was a critical one in establishing her character's hopes for the future.
In the episode, Felicity's sister Cecily contracts tuberculosis.
"Felicity takes it on herself to meet up with the woman doctor (who is treating Cecily) and find out more about tuberculosis.
"That's where she gets the impetus to go to medical school. Seeing her sister so ill pushed her to go."
Ms Zamprogna will find out if she wins on March 5 when the 9th Annual Gemini Awards will be handed out at the Toronto Convention Centre which will be telecast live on CBC Television starting at 8 p.m.
The Gemini Awards are presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Ms Zamprogna says she hopes to go to university next year, where she would like to take a double major in drama and another subject, perhaps psychology.
That's why her exams are weighing on her so much right now. Good marks are more critical than ever in getting accepted to university.
Which goes to show, it's not all glamor, even for Gemini nominees.