SHERRI INTERVIEW ONE

It's been some kind of two years for Sherri Saum.

First, the 23-year-old former Kettering resident and Fairmont High School graduate landed the role of newspaper reporter Vanessa Hart on the NBC daytime series Sunset Beach. That was in 1997.

Now Saum has parlayed the part into a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding younger actress in a drama series. She found out about that Thursday.

Saum was surprised both times.

"I learned about the Emmy nomination around 9 in the morning when I got a call from Los Angeles," she said from New York. "I think my first words were, 'Uh-uh. Um . . . maybe you better have 'em count the ballots again.' I mean, I had no clue this was going to happen. I was shocked."

The first thing she did was call her mother Lois, who works as an editorial assistant and writer at the Dayton Daily News. "I told her, `Hi, Mom. You better sit down for this one,' " she said.

Saum thinks her Emmy nomination and those of two other members of the Sunset Beach cast--Kathleen Noone and Jason George--could provide a boost for the series.

"There's been talk that either Sunset Beach or Another World might not be renewed," she said. "Maybe the nominations will help swing things our way."

She's thrilled for Heather Tom, who plays Victoria Newman on The Young and the Restless and is one of Saum's competitors in the outstanding younger actress in a drama series category. "I grew up watching Heather and I think she's amazing," she said.

Before Saum made her debut as Melissa Hart with the line, "Get the license plate" on Jan. 9, 1997, her TV experience was limited to commercials and a stint as an extra on The Cosby Show.

Now she has a three-year contract with NBC, an Emmy nomination and her sights set on a feature film career.

"I definitely want to do movies," she said. "I'd like to work with Spike Lee. He's No. 1 on my list."

Saum divides her time between Los Angeles and New York, but prefers the latter.

"I like the energy, the 24-hour-ness of this place," she said. "LA's kind of lazy. New York plays faster . . . and you get more things done quicker."

Saum will go back to West Coast Tuesday to tape more episodes of Sunset Beach. She'll return to New York for the Emmy Awards show on May 21.

"I still feel like I'm sort of a spectator in this whole thing," she said. "I guess maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. Being nominated for an Emmy is really cool because it means other actors voted for you."