Ray Romano, Jennifer Aniston and Milwaukee's Erik West have something in common: a 2002 gold Emmy proudly perched in their homes. "Mine's on my bookshelf next to my Macintosh Classic," says West.

The Chicago/Midwest Emmy award ceremony took place November 23 at the Michigan Avenue Hilton in Chicago and 29-year-old West, art director for the local TV program, "Making the Grade," was nominated in three categories: Best Non-News Promotions, Best Design and Best Videography. West won the Videography category, beating out 12 people.

"It was rather nerve-wracking," says the Madison native, who graduated from UWM's Film Department in 1996. "I mean, it's an honor just to be nominated, and I was nominated for three. But I felt I needed to walk out of there with at least one. So it was a big relief when my name was announced."

West, a self-described behind-the-scenes person, wasn't thrilled about giving the infamous "thank you" speech after he was named the winner. "I walked into the ceremony not thinking that I would win so I didn't even think about what I was going to say if I did," he says. "But it went fine. I thanked my parents for supporting the direction I wanted to take in life, Don Hoffman, the executive producer and host, Kim Schwandt, the producer and I thanked all of the kids that helped make the show great."

In order to qualify for a Chicago/Midwest Emmy the show must be aired to less than 40 percent of the country's population. "But the statues are the same as the national Emmys, which is cool," says West.

Making The Grade, referred to as "MTG," is a news magazine show for teens and young adults. The popular program draws as many as 60,000 viewers each week and tackles serious teen-related topics, from smoking to gay and lesbianism.

"Our ratings have been really good this year," says West. "Last week we got a 1.9 with a 10 share on Friday and a 1.2 with a 4 share on Saturday. These kind of ratings are typically rare of with this kind of locally produced show in this kind of market."

For now, West plans to continue shooting and editing MTG, but hopes to eventually find his way into the film industry.

MTG airs Friday nights at 12:30 a.m. on WB 18 and Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. on UPN 24. Most of the program is filmed at the Lincoln Center of the Arts, an MPS Middle School on Milwaukee's lower East Side.