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For nearly two years, Cherie Jimenez has played Gabi Hernandez on Days of Our Lives. <\/em>In a recent interview, the actress discussed how she first joined the Peacock soap opera.<\/p>\n Jimenez appeared <\/a>on the YouTube series Talk About it with Franjez<\/em>, where she reflected on the casting process.<\/p>\n During the interview, Jimenez explained that she had originally auditioned for Days of Our Lives<\/em> years earlier. \u201cI got the audition for Days of Our Lives<\/em>, and thought \u2018Wow, I haven’t auditioned for Days since I was 22 for the role of Gabi.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Jimenez noted that the new audition sides listed a different character name, leading her to believe the part was for a relative of Gabi. \u201cI thought it was to be her sister because we kind of look alike or to be a cousin or something,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oo, this is fun. I’ll take this audition.”<\/p>\n She added that the audition took place during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, sharing how the opportunity to work at the time felt like a blessing.<\/p>\n Jimenez recalled completing the callback over Zoom from her home in Texas. \u201cThe casting director said, \u2018Do you know about soap operas? We do it in one take,” she said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Yeah, I’ve heard.\u2019” Jimenez admitted she stumbled during the audition and worried it was over. \u201cA week later, I find out I have a screen test.\u201d<\/p>\n She explained it was at this point that she learned which role she was actually being considered for. \u201cIt said Gabi Hernandez,\u201d she noted, recalling how she immediately recognized the characters name.<\/p>\n Jimenez traveled from Texas to Los Angeles for the screen test. She said the final round included five other actresses, one of whom she already knew.<\/p>\n She also shared a personal moment from the screen test that put her at ease. \u201cWhat’s crazy is that in the show, the symbol of the DiMera family is the phoenix,\u201d she said. Jimenez referenced Stefano DiMera, long known to fan\u2019s as \u2018The Phoenix,\u2019 and called him \u201cthe greatest villain in TV history of the soap world.\u201d She noted a personal connection to the symbol, \u201cMy son’s name is Phoenix.\u201d Jimenez shared, \u201cSo in the screen test before I started, I looked over and I saw a phoenix statue,\u201d the actress explained how that made her think of her son and be put at ease.<\/p>\n Two weeks later, Jimenez received a call from her team with the results. \u201cThey unanimously decided nobody else compared. You were it,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n Jimenez said she \u201ccried hysterically, of course with gratitude\u201d when she heard the news. \u201cFor the first time, it was my turn,\u201d she said, describing her reaction as \u201ca wild feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that she believes the timing was meant to be, calling Gabi \u201ca huge role,\u201d and \u201ca dream role.\u201d<\/p>\n Days of Our Lives<\/em> continues streaming weekdays on Peacock.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Nov 16, 2025, where it first appeared in the TV<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For nearly two years, Cherie Jimenez has played Gabi Hernandez on Days of Our Lives. In a recent interview, the actress discussed how she first joined the Peacock soap opera. Jimenez appeared on the YouTube series Talk About it with Franjez, where she reflected on the casting process. During the interview, Jimenez explained that she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2159603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[341935,309475,363919,413881],"class_list":["post-2159602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cherie-jimenez","tag-days-of-our-lives","tag-gabi-hernandez","tag-jimenez"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Cherie-Jimenez-Shares-Story-Behind-Her-Days-of-Our-Lives.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2159602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159604,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159602\/revisions\/2159604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2159602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2159602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2159602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}