Mayra Gómez Kemp
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Mayra Gómez Kemp (Mayra Cristina Gómez Martínez Kemp) (born 14 February 1948 in Cuba) spent most of her teens in Miami, Florida where she learned to speak fluent English. There, while on University, she had her debut on screen, on the B-Series movie The Death Curse of Tartu (1966), as Mayra Cristine. A few years later, in the 1970s, she moved to Spain and resumed her career in show business.
When appearing in the musical comedy The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mayra met her costar and future husband, Argentina-born actor Alberto Berco. In 1976, when the successful TVE contest Un, Dos, Tres... Responda Otra Vez (1972) returned to the small screen to be broadcast in colour for the first time, Mayra auditioned as one of the hostesses of the program. Although she wasn't selected as a hostess, she was offered a steady job as a comic actress in the show and Mayra quickly became a household name.
One year later, after leaving the show, Mayra teamed up with two of the show's former hostesses, María Durán and Beatriz Escudero to form a pop vocal trio named Acuario ("Aquarius", since that was the zodiac sign of all three women). With Mayra as lead vocalist, they enjoyed a brief but intense popularity thanks to their vocal skills and their charmingly sexy image, scoring a summer hit with Rema, Rema, Marinero ("Row, Row, Sailor"). Mayra left the group soon afterwards to continue her career as TV presenter in programs such as 625 Líneas (her debut as presenter and first TP Award out of four as best presenter) and Ding Dong. Mayra also recorded an album called Una Dama ("One Lady"), which included her cover of Julio Ramos's anti-abortion pop hit No Te Dejan Nacer ("They Won't Let You Be Born").
Mayra made her second movie after 12 years in 1978 in a film called Donde Hay Patrón... starring Manolo Escobar. Later becoming a Spanish citizen, Mayra turned her activity to the radio as one of the original announcers on the new station Antena 3 (now defunct). Her peak of popularity came when she was called to substitute for Kiko Ledgard, the famous presenter of Un, Dos, Tres..., who had suffered a near-fatal accident. Mayra won the audience over and remained with the program.
After a lengthy stay of six years on Un, Dos, Tres... (more than any other presenter in the history of this show), Mayra took a break from the media to look after her husband, who was suffering from depression, focussing only on her work on the radio. She returned to television after his full recovery.
Since the cancellation of Un Dos Tres, Mayra went on to host the chat show Tres mas Una on regional station Canal Sur TV. She later hosted the successful gameshow Luna de Miel which aired on many of the FORTA regional networks.
With the launch of commercial television in Spain in 1989, Mayra returned to TV and hosted Spain's first attempt at The Wheel of Fortune on Antena 3TV. On the same channel she fronted the talkshow Simplemente Mayra and also presented the cookery based gameshow Tomates y Pimientos.
For the latter part of the 90s and into the new century, Mayra has failed to secure her own TV show in the very competitive Spanish TV market. She has though been called a few times to carry out the role of a "contertuliana" (collaborator) on many of Spain's TV magazine shows, which have celebrity gossip and Tabloid journalism as the main ingredient. In this respect, she has made contributions to Menta y Chocolate and A3Bandas (Antena 3TV) and Salsa Rosa, Dolce Vita, A Tu Lado and TNT (Tele5).
[edit] External links
- Mayra Gómez Kemp at the Internet Movie Database
- 123Mayra.com (In Spanish/en español)
