Shell Kepler
was one of 250 young actresses who auditioned for the role of Amy Vining on
General Hospital. Shell stood out in the crowd, however, and-after a
week of intense anxiety and nail-biting waiting to see if she got the
part-she signed on as a regular GH cast member. She's been a
satisfied soaperstar ever since.
"I love playing Amy!" Shell
enthusiastically admits. "She's a kid and I love being a kid. She's one
of the most fun characters on the show. You may not like her but she's
always interesting. There is always activity going on around her and you
know something's going to happen. Something is going to be said, something
is going to go wrong, but she's a high energy character and I think that's
nice. And I still haven't seen anybody on daytime TV, or prime time TV for
that matter, who is similar to Amy in character."
Shell was born
and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but she moved to California when she
was in the sixth grade. Though an acting career was, at the time, just a
dream, Shell began working diligently on her diction and speech patterns.
"Having a southern accent in the sixth grade in Southern California just
wasn't a big hit with the other kids," she says. "Definitely not ...
so I eliminated that immediately."
Today Shell lives with her
24-year-old brother, Freddy, and two cats, Bosco and Biff. She spends most
of her free time writing songs (she's actively pursuing a music career) and
hanging out with her best friend, Loanne Bishop (Rose Kelly on GH).
There is no special man in her life at present. "I broke up with my
boyfriend of 31/2 years a few months ago," she says. "Right now I'm
not seeing anyone, which is fine because it's taking so much time to do
music and, what with working on the show, writing time isn't easy to find.
Good quality time where you can just sit down and focus your attention.
Having free evenings is perfect."
Shell would like to get married
someday and have a child ("One, no more"), but right now her major
goal is a career in the record business. "My main concern is the
music," she says, "and we'll see how that goes. I'm employed on the
number one show in the country and I work on that every day. But the music
thing is difficult. You have to put a lot of time and effort into it. And
I'm very serious about it, so if I can achieve that, I'll feel I've
really accomplished something."
