Since 2015, Nikki DeLoach has starred in over 20 Hallmark movies, with a chunk of them being Christmas flicks. It was a change of pace for the actress, who started on The All New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993 and starred in shows such as North Shore, Days of Our Lives, and Awkward. She previously revealed she was “laughed out of the room” when she was making her pivot to Hallmark, and now she’s opening up about joining the network and how her grandmother was involved.
DeLoach has been busy as of late, with three movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and her latest Hallmark Christmas film, Our Holiday Story, on Hallmark’s Christmas lineup. For nearly 10 years now, she’s been a mainstay on the network, and that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
So, throwing it back to her early days with the channel, DeLoach told Woman’s World how she initially got involved in Hallmark, and it involves Awkward and her grandmother:
I actually became involved with Hallmark because of my grandmother. I was on Awkward at the time, and it wasn’t exactly the most family-friendly programming. It was a comedy, and it was a little more racy and edgy in terms of the jokes and the storytelling. My grandmother, who’s always been my biggest fan, called me and said Awkward was hard for her to watch. She said, ‘I just want you to do one of those nice, sweet Hallmark Christmas movies,’ and of course, I’d heard of Hallmark, but I didn’t even know they made movies. I had no idea about the channel.
DeLoach starred on the MTV teen dramedy for all five seasons, from 2011 to 2016, and it’s not exactly the most family-friendly series. It was a popular one, no doubt, and still remains a favorite among fans, but it’s not really one for a grandmother to watch.
It’s not surprising that DeLoach’s grandmother would rather not watch it, but it’s sweet that she still wanted to see her granddaughter’s work. So the actress made her wish come true and looked into doing Hallmark movies despite not knowing much about it. And it all happened pretty fast:
I watched one and then reached out to my agent and said, ‘My grandmother really wants me to do a Hallmark Christmas movie. Is there any way that you could try and facilitate that?’ They called Hallmark, and the next thing I knew, I was in Utah doing my first Christmas movie, Christmas Land, with Luke Macfarlane. It was the fastest turnaround I think I’ve ever had on a movie. I was in my hometown in South Georgia when it aired, and the reaction from these hometown people who had supported me in my career for my whole life was so different. They’d watched everything, and yet I had never gotten this reaction from them.
Hallmark is certainly different from Awkward, and one would think such a big pivot would be hard. However, it does sound like Nikki DeLoach had some big support, which can certainly work wonders.
Additionally, the movie and the support made her watch even more Hallmark movies and realize just how magical they really are. I can’t say I blame her for making the move:
I got really curious about the why, so I sat with it, watched some more Hallmark movies, and then it just hit me why people love them so much. You get to escape for 90 minutes and feel like, at the end of the day, everything’s going to be okay, and there’s going to be a happy ending.
Even though DeLoach had to film a Christmas movie in a heatwave, having the films always end in a happy way makes it all worth it, on top of the fact that her grandmother got her wish. Plus, her 2022 movie The Gift of Peace broke the mold by focusing on grief and emotions rather than romances, while 2023’s A World Record Christmas was based on a true story and celebrated neurodiversity. So, she’s also getting to tell super meaningful stories as well that mean a lot to people.
Hallmark continues to expand its content and storytelling, and with DeLoach at the center of some of those projects, it’s going to be exciting to see what other tales she will be able to tell through Hallmark’s upcoming movies.