According to a published report, As the World Turns has hired Ellen Wheeler -- but not in the position that many fans might expect. TVGuide Canada reports that the Emmy-winning actor-turned-executive will serve as a director for the only remaining Procter & Gamble-produced soap.


Wheeler began her daytime career in the mid-1980s on another P&G soap, Another World. During her two-year run with the show, Wheeler portrayed twins Marley and Vicky Hudson. Her work on the NBC soaps earned her a Daytime Emmy win for Outstanding Younger Actress in 1986.

Upon leaving Bay City, Wheeler settled down for a couple of years in All My Children's Pine Valley. On All My Children, Wheeler had the opportunity to play out what was a groundbreaking story for the time: her character had contracted AIDS. In 1988, there were still many things that the public did not know about HIV and AIDS and All My Children was able to craft a love story around Cindy's illness and eventual death. Wheeler earned a second Daytime Emmy in 1989, this time in the Outstanding Supporting Actress field.

Wheeler would return to Another World and, in the show's final year on the air, she stepped behind the camera. Under then-executive producer Christopher Goutman, who is now the executive producer of As the World Turns, Wheeler directed a handful of episodes of Another World. She later went on to direct episodes of As the World Turns.

In 2004, Guiding Light hired Ellen Wheeler as its executive producer. Under Wheeler, Guiding Light unveiled dramatic changes to its production model that included an abundance of location shoots, Guiding Light won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 2007, and it aired its last episode in September 2009.

A spokesperson for As the World Turns did not immediately respond to requests for a statement.