For Kim Kaiman, winning an Emmy Award for her role in a Time Warner Cable public service announcement was “a little embarrassing.”
“I still can’t believe it,” she said. “I almost feel slightly guilty because it was one of the few things I’ve done in over 20 years where I wasn’t acting, I was just being myself.”
Kaiman, executive director of the Town of North Hempstead Business & Tourism Development Corporation, received the award at the 59th annual New York Emmy Awards on March 19.
Kaiman was nominated for her role in Time Warner Cable’s “We Are One” campaign, which aimed to build awareness about the diversity of the Hispanic-American community.
She said the announcement’s message was that Hispanic Americans come from all different walks of life and don’t necessarily look similar.
Kaiman, whose great-grandparents were Spanish, said people are often shocked when she tells them she is Hispanic because of her appearance.
“I think for me, they just look at me like I’ve got three heads, like really you’re Hispanic?” she said. “I can give them my entire genealogy and it still wouldn’t make a difference.”
She said people should recognize that Hispanic Americans do not have one specific look that identifies them.
“You can’t put us into a vacuum,” she said.
Kaiman said her great-grandparents were sugarcane workers in the Canary Islands.
They then moved to Puerto Rico, she said, where both her grandparents were born.
Her grandfather eventually moved from Puerto Rico to the Bronx, where he owned a bodega.
Kaiman said she grew up in a bilingual household, where she learned to speak Spanish fluently.
The theater was a big part of her upbringing, she said, as she went to numerous performing arts and theatrical venues to perform.
Kaiman said as the years went on, she saw that acting wasn’t going to be her calling in life.
“I realized that I was probably never going to be able to make a living out of it and decided to go to law school at CUNY Law and graduated,” she said.
Although she decided to take a different career route, Kaiman continued to stay involved in the theatrical community.
She said she has performed on stage locally in Great Neck, Port Washington, East Williston and Queens in the past 25 years.
“Some people like to go to the gym as their hobby, some people like to go jogging in the morning, some people like to cook,” Kaiman said. “For me, I just enjoy doing theater.”
She said her love of the theater has rubbed off on both her daughter and her husband, Jon Kaiman, who is one of five Democratic candidates vying for the nomination to run for outgoing U.S. Rep. Steve Israel’s Third Congressional District seat.
“It was so interesting to sit back and pass on this tremendous love and be able to share that with my daughter,” Kaiman said. “It’s interesting to see this little spark in her come out.”
She said she and Jon have performed together at Temple Israel of Great Neck.
Through all of her acting experiences, Kaiman said winning an Emmy reigns supreme over her other achievements.
“Who thinks they’re going to win an Emmy? Not me. I didn’t even think we were going to be nominated,” she said. “For me, it represents 25 years of enjoying this hobby of mine.”
