Monday, May 13, 2019

Two UNCW alumni can now add Daytime Emmy winner to their list of accomplishments, and a third alum has made room on his mantel for his fourth award.
 
Aaron Pinkston ’05, Elaine White ’07 and Ryan Kawamoto ’08 each won an Emmy during the 46th annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony held May 5 in Pasadena, CA. The alumni are staff members of daytime shows recognized as the best in their categories. It was Pinkston’s fourth Emmy and the first award for White and Kawamoto.
 
Pinkston is a senior field producer and Kawamoto is a field producer with The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which won “Best Entertainment Talk Show.” White is the co-executive producer of Valerie’s Home Cooking, which won “Best Culinary Program.”
 
Kawamoto, a business major, said the experience was a dream come true. “It meant the world to me to be nominated for an Emmy,” he said. “Some people work their whole lives for that sort of recognition, whether it be an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, Tony, and are never nominated in their lifetime. It was an honor not only to be nominated but also to have won.”
 
“Now that it’s happened, I don’t remember a second of it,” said White, a film studies major. “I completely blacked out in all of the excitement. In TV, it’s the most elite award anyone can receive and to be honored with even a nomination is mind-blowing – and to win, I have no words.”

-- Venita Jenkins
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Elaine White ’07

Ryan Kawamoto ’08