As a translator, I don’t chat with Hollywood types too often. Or actually ever. But when I heard that comedian Iliza Shlesinger – for whom I had done German translations of her ancestors’ records on the PBS genealogy series Finding Your Roots in January – was coming to my town for a comedy show, I thought to myself, “How amazing would that be if I could actually meet her?” It seemed like a pipe dream, but I thought….well, it’s worth a try.
See Iliza reading my translation of her ancestor Lipa Szonek’s death record here. Iliza found out on this episode that her ancestor Lipa died in the Holocaust. Source: Season 10, Episode 5 of Finding Your Roots (https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/)
So a few months ago, I contacted the producers at Finding Your Roots, asking if it would be okay if I met up with Iliza. They said yes from their end, but told me that I’d need to talk to Iliza’s “people” to set things up. I then looked up the Iliza Shlesinger website and found her agent’s contact information. Full of nerves – I’d never called a Beverly Hills agent before! – I picked up the phone and dialed the number.
“Talent Office”, the agent answered. Hoping he wouldn’t laugh at me, I quickly explained who I was, stating that I was the translator who worked with Iliza’s ancestors’ German records when she recently appeared on Finding Your Roots. I told the agent that I saw she was coming to my town of Bend for her show in August, and that I was wondering if it would be possible to interview her or meet up before or after the event.
“Let me talk to my boss and call you back,” he said. “I’m the assistant.” Relieved that he didn’t think I was crazy for even asking – that my request was legitimate enough to pass on to his boss – I said thank you and hung up. I then proceeded to keep my phone glued to my side the rest of the afternoon, waiting for that call…but it didn’t come that day.Â
Fast forward to the next day, mid-morning: I’m on an important Zoom meeting with my new operations manager Cadri, and I see a Beverly Hills area-code call come in. “Let me call you back!” I said to her quickly, and left the Zoom faster than I ever have before (sorry Cadri!).Â
“Hello?” I answered.Â
“Hi Katherine, this is the assistant agent calling you back,” he said. “I talked to my boss, and he said that I should give you Iliza’s publicists’ contact information so that you can give them your request. Do you have a pen?”
We were moving forward!Â
After taking down their e-mails, I sat down to write the publicists. I once again explained who I was, sending them clips of the episode where my translations were featured (I also did additional background translations they didn’t show). I told them about the August comedy performance here in Oregon, and asked if it would be possible to meet up with Iliza before or after the event.
After a bit of back and forth – it ended with a yes! The publicists were able to get my husband and I on the list for the Meet and Greet after the show. So exciting – something that I thought was a random “what if?” was now a reality.
After a nice dinner out, my husband and headed to the outdoor theater. We picked up our VIP passes (and felt very cool while doing so) and then headed to our seats. It was a great show, and we laughed a lot.
But now the exciting part…once the show was over, we headed down to the VIP meet-up section and waited to be let in. There were about 15 people there, all waiting to see Iliza. When it was my turn, I told her who I was (I wasn’t sure if her agents had told her that I was hoping to meet up) and that I had done her ancestors’ German translations for Finding Your Roots. She then looks at me and blurts out, “Oh wow, I thought you were like 90 years old!”
So apparently she did know who I was…just had a different image of me! 🙂
“Thanks for meeting with me,” I said.
“Thank you for doing the translations,” she replied. “That was…wow. It was crazy to find out all that on national TV.”
“So you had no idea about your ancestors being a part of the Holocaust until you were talking with Henry Louis Gates?” I asked, curious.
“No,” she answered. “I didn’t know anything about my dad’s family. And finding the words for that, live on television, while trying to process that emotionally, was definitely a challenge. But so good to know.”**
After taking a quick picture together (she was sick, so we had to stand far apart!), I said goodbye and thanked her for the chance to meet. She once again said thank you for the translations, and that was it! A wonderful date night, and a fun plus of being a genealogy translator – one that I never expected. Thank you so much to Iliza and her team, and Finding Your Roots, for this fun opportunity!
**This is a conversation from memory and does not represent recorded exact quotes.
Want to read more about my work with Finding Your Roots? Check out Behind the Scenes of Finding Your Roots: My Translation Experience.Â
3 Responses
You just never know what exciting experiences you will have from doing family research. Congratulations, Katherine!
That’s a great story!
Wow, so fun, exciting and Bravo!