Ellen Jayne Wheeler is an American actress, director and producer. She has appeared in several soap operas, including Another World and All My Children. In 1986, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for her work as twins Marley and Vicky Love Hudson on Another World. In 1988, she won another Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work as Cindy Parker Chandler on All My Children. Wheeler's character was one of the first characters with AIDS on daytime television. Wheeler also made a memorable guest appearance as Phyllis Wicke in the 1991 primetimerevival of the gothicsoap operaDark Shadows. In 1996, she starred in the episode, "The Quickening |The Quickening". In 1998, she briefly reprised the role of Marley on Another World. Rather than have the same actress play the role of both twins, the show made the decision to have Wheeler, the first actress to play the twins, portray Marley, and have actress Jensen Buchanan continue to play Vicky; their differences in appearance were explained by plastic surgery after Marley was disfigured in a fire. Wheeler was once married to her Another World costar, Tom Eplin. They were married during the time that their characters Vicky/Marley and Jake were involved.
Directing and producing
During the final season of Another World, Wheeler drew on her stage directorial experience and was invited by AW's executive producer, Chris Goutman, to direct a few episodes of the show. After the cancellation of Another World in 1999, she continued her focus on directing. While continuing to act, she directed several episodes of As the World Turns and finally became part of the directorial team at As the World Turns. After two seasons with ATWT, Wheeler worked as an associate producer at another Procter & Gamble serial, Guiding Light. She returned to ATWT and directed episodes of the show for several years, until she was appointed executive producer of Guiding Light in April 2004, a position she would hold until the final episode of the show in September 2009. Under her direction, the show named a new head writer, David Kreizman, and in 2008, she created a four-person head writing team; in addition to Kreizman, that team includes Lucky Gold, Chris Dunn and executive story editor Jill Lorie Hurst. Wheeler is credited with Guiding Light's transition to a new filming method. The show moved away from traditional three-camera filming in a "proscenium" stage setting, and in early 2008 began to broadcast episodes that were recorded on digital cameras. The show rebuilt smaller, more realistic sets in its studio and utilized several other interior and exterior sets in a New Jersey town. In 2007, Wheeler launched Guiding Light's 70th anniversary by volunteering her cast and crew on a charity and service campaign known as "Find Your Light", encouraging viewers to participate alongside actors, directors and crew members in work for the homeless and other deserving groups and individuals across the country. Despite Wheeler's efforts to save the show, CBS cancelled the program on April 1, 2009. The final episode was broadcast on September 18, 2009.
In 2015, Glenn Beck announced that Wheeler would be working with him to create and produce content. A 2016 article identified Wheeler as a programming director for Beck's streaming channel, Blaze TV.
