On the latest edition of Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart which dropped on Tuesday, July 21, Emily O’Brien is the featured guest. As soap fans know, Emily has worked with Rikaart both in her first soap role on The Young and the Restless as Jana Hawkes and now on Days of Our Lives in her current role of Gwen Rizczech.

While Emily continues on DAYS, she has very impressive list of credits in the other part of her career as a voice-over actress and one in motion-capture in some of the most popular video games in the world.

O’Brien was first seen on The Young and the Restless back in 2006. She recalled her landing the role which eventually paired her for her five year run with Greg Rikaart.

Photo: JPI

BEING CAST ON THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

“The role was just a few days and she wasn’t even supposed to be English,” Emily recalled. “The role was originally called Jade. Karen Rae, the casting director of The Young and the Restless at the time said to me “Oh, you’re from England. Try it with the dialect.” I put it on and she said, ‘I’m going to bring you back at like 3 for s callback.’ So then they changed the role to Jana and they said she’s going to be a Brit. I was only supposed to be on for like five episodes and it turned into 5 years.”

In explaining why she loved crazy Jana, Emily shared, “Jana was sort of like the misanthrope. She was just was the odd one out and I loved it. I felt so comfortable playing that because she was just eclectic and weird and she loved playing with Ouija boards and she rode a motorbike. There was just so much color to bring to her. It was just such a great match to play with Greg (Kevin), and Christian LeBlanc (Michael) and Tracey Bregman (Lauren).

Photo: JPI

GWEN, DIMITRI AND LEO ON DAYS OF OUR LIVES

On Days of Our Lives, the Leo, Gwen, Dimitri dynamic is quite unique and been through many schemes and entanglements. Often Emily finds herself in repartee with her ex-lover, Dimitri, who turned out to be gay and then had a thing for her bestie, Leo (Greg Rikaart)!

During the conversation, Greg and Emily sang, Peter Porte’s praised with O’Brien expressing, “Peter is just ready to play. He comes on set prepared. I’ve never seen him with his script. From blocking and rehearsals, he doesn’t have it. He’s prepared. He’s a physical actor and he always trying to come up with something. I think he let me slap him. He let me kiss him. He let me throw a cheeseburger in his lap. He’s ready for anything for anything.”

You can catch the full episode of ‘Soapy; featuring Emily O’Brien below where the actress also talks about replacing Jen Lilley as Theresa Donovan after being let go as Gwen; and being paired again with Greg Rikaart on the Peacock streaming soap opera this time as best friends and more.

So, were you a big Jana Hawkes and Kevin Fisher fan on Y&R? Did you like them as a couple? Do you like the dynamic between Emily and Peter Porte and Greg Rikaart on DAYS? Weigh-in via the comment section below.

Al Calderon, the OG Javi Hernandez, scored his first ever Daytime Emmy nomination last Tuesday when the nominations were unveiled in full by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

Now, Calderon will be vying for the gold in the Outstanding Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series category. Nominated alongside Al were: Braedyn Bruner (as Emma Scorpio-Drake), General Hospital, Alice Halsey (as Rachel Black), Days of Our Lives, Giovanni Mazza (as Gio Palmieri), General Hospital, Ambyr Michelle (as Eva Thomas), Beyond the Gates and Arielle Prepetit (as Naomi Hamilton Hawthorne), Beyond the Gates.

Tomorrow on Tuesday, July 21, Al will chat live on You Tube’s Michael Fairman Channel in a special conversation, not only to get his reactions and thoughts to becoming an official Emmy nominee, but also to talk about his run as DAYS Javi, which came to an end last month on-screen (Days of our Lives tapes ten months ahead of dropping new episodes, and Calderon had exited the series in 2025).

Photo: JPI

AL CALDERON WRITES HEARTFELT POST TO HIS LATE MOTHER

Previously Al shared the news of his nominations on his Instagram with a special acknowledgement to his late mother. Calderon expressed, “Hi mom, it’s me. I got nominated for an Emmy today. I hope you can be my date while you’re watching over me.
I’m honored to be recognized and even considered to be able to put my name in the ring. Thank you to my family Days of Our Lives family. for the opportunity. Latino gang baby.”

Currently on DAYS, Jacob Martinez has taken over the role of Javi starting with the June 30th episode. When Calderon exited his time on the Peacock streaming soap, he stayed within the NBCUniversal family nabbing the role of nurse Nico Silva on the second season of the medical drama, Brilliant Minds starring Zachary Quinto.

Photo: NBC

FROM DAYS OF OUR LIVES TO BRILLIANT MINDS TO AN EMMY NOMINATION

Before the back-half of the last six episodes of the season of Brilliant Minds began to air at the end of May, NBC decided to cancel the show and the possibility of a renewal for a third season came to an end.

Currently, Calderon is continuing to also pursue a career as a musical artist through his singing and songwriter; having released in 2026, the single and music video to his track, SMOKE and more.

If you have a question or comment for Al, but cannot be with us during the live broadcast, you can drop it in the comment section below and we may just ask it while on-air.

The live chat begins tomorrow at 8 pm ET/5pm PT, and if you haven’t “subscribed” to the Michael Fairman Channel for upcoming celebrity features, livestreams and special event coverage, we urge you to do so, that way you can be notified ahead of our guest appearances.

So, were you thrilled for Al that he received a Daytime Emmy nomination for his work as Javi on DAYS? Have you enjoyed his performances on the soap opera and on primetime in Brilliant Minds? Let us know via the comment section below.

There was not a dry eye in the house when in June of 2025, Paul Narita (Christopher Sean) gets up to eulogize his father, John Black (Drake Hogestyn), after the iconic character passed away and his funeral brought Salem together for one last goodbye.

In real life, Drake Hogestyn had passed away of pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 back on September 28, 2024. When DAYS taped the funeral episode, Drake was still alive and had given his blessing to the series longtime executive producer, Ken Corday, that it was OK with him to kill off his character and to have a memorial. Sadly, shortly after the cast filmed the scenes, Drake died leaving a lasting legacy on DAYS that will never be matched.

Earlier this week on Tuesday, Christopher Sean received the bittersweet news that he had received a Daytime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Guest Performer category for the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards for his performances. Christopher appeared shortly after the news of his nomination on the Michael Fairman Channel’s Daytime Emmy Nominations Special 2026 were he shared his emotional reaction. Here’s part of what he expressed below.

Photo: JPI

WHAT DID CHRISTOPHER SEAN SUBMIT?

“I submitted Paul’s lowest moments in his life, and Paul’s highest moments, meaning the eulogy with John Black, his father, and for my hero, Drake Hogestyn, and Paul getting married to Andrew (Colton Little). So it was two very opposite ends of his life. But what a great culmination of 12 years of being on Days of Our Lives it was.”

ALWAYS BEING GRATEFUL TO DRAKE HOGESTYN

“Even talking about it now, I have so much love for Drake. I’ve got him here on my wall and I wake up every day and I try to make him proud. It’s hard to talk about it, but I feel that my life is on the path that I am because of him, because of him being my role model, because of him loving and guiding me, because of everything that he has taught me on and off the set.”

Photo: JPI

THE EARLY STRUGGLES WITH PAUL’S EULOGY AND HEARTFELT ADDITIONS TO THE DIALOG

“I had been texting back and forth with Drake and I was actually pretty angry, because I felt that we shouldn’t exploit this, but Drake was so attached to the fan base that when Ken Corday spoke with him and gave him the permission to allow the fans to grieve with us, that’s when I said, ‘OK, if that’s what he wants, then I’m going to go full throttle with it.’ In Paul’s eulogy and monologue I’d read it and without asking the writers, I added a few lines and they allowed me to keep them.”

Christopher continued, “One of the lines was, ‘anytime I see a rainbow in the sky’ and I said, ‘and a baseball up high, or a rainbow in the sky,’ because I wanted to attribute it to baseball and to Drake. It was already perfect the way it was written, but that was my nod to Drake. We all loved him and there’s not a person I know who didn’t love him. Drake lit up any room he was a part of. I would not be here, again, without Drake.”

You can catch Christopher’s conversation on the Daytime Emmy Nominations Special at the 2:14:25 mark below.

The 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be handed in a ceremony on October 30 from the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood California. Current plans are for the event to stream live on the National Academy Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), watch.theemmys.tv and associated apps.

So, will you be rooting for Christopher to take home the gold for his heartbreaking performance of Paul’s grief over losing John and then marrying Andrew? Were you touched by how much Drake Hogestyn had meant to his life and career? Let us know via the comment section below.