Hallmark Stars You Didn't Know Are Canadian

Hallmark means many things to many people. For some, it's all about greeting cards, the ideal way to send a message, ranging from congratulations to condolences, secure in the knowledge that someone else has already come up with the perfect sentiment that the purchaser wishes to express. For many more, however, Hallmark means endlessly addictive holiday movies, which all seem to follow the same basic plot: harried, high-powered career gal returns to her small hometown for the holidays to deal with some family crisis, where sparks of romance fly when she meets a guy she seemingly has nothing in common with (or better yet, reunites with her high school crush), while everyone learns the True Meaning of Christmas.

What many Hallmark movie fans may not realize is an overwhelmingly large number of these films are actually shot in Canada usually during the summer months. Given that simple fact, it shouldn't be surprising that some of Hallmark's most beloved stars are Canadians. To find out which of these actors hail from the Great White North, read on for a rundown of some Hallmark stars you didn't know were Canadian.

Jessica Lowndes made her Hallmark debut in the 2015 holiday movie "Merry Matrimony," which she followed with 2016's "A December Bride," "A Magical Christmas Ornament" in 2017," "Yes, I Do" (2018), and several others — including, more recently, the 2024 pet-themed Christmas flick "Happy Howlidays."

This native of Vancouver — which, not for nothing, has earned the nickname "Hollywood North" — has certainly earned her Hallmark stripes, following her breakthrough in The CW's "90210" and starring opposite "Saturday Night Live" alums Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig in their Lifetime movie spoof, "A Deadly Adoption." Meanwhile, she's also carved out a parallel career as a singer, releasing her first EP in 2012, followed by several singles in the years that followed. Lowndes also made headlines in 2016 when she and Jon Lovitz punked the internet by announcing they'd gotten engaged (they did not) as a way to promote her pop single, "Deja Vu (Remix)."

Interviewed by BC Living, Lowndes admitted that she missed her hometown now that she'd settled in Los Angeles. "Most of all I miss my family, but I do miss the seasons," she said, insisting that she even missed Vancouver's incessant rain. "You know what? I do," she said. "There are days when I miss the rain."

Cameron Mathison has had a career that can understatedly be described as multifaceted. Not only has he starred in umpteen Hallmark Channel movies, Mathison has also starred in the "Murder, She Baked" and "Hannah Swenson Mystery" series. Plus, he's been a TV host (of "Entertainment Tonight" and Hallmark's "Home & Family" talk show) and enjoyed long runs in not one but two iconic soap operas: from 1988 until 2011, he played Ryan Lavery in "All My Children" then joined "General Hospital" in 2021. The native of Sarnia, Ontario has continued to work in his homeland when he can — such as the home-renovation competition "Game of Homes" for Canada's W Network.

Fans may not realize it, but Mathison departed Hallmark for the seemingly greener pastures of upstart Great American Family, launched by former Hallmark president Bill Abbott. Since then, GAF has lured numerous Hallmark stars to its ranks, including former Hallmark staple Candace Cameron Bure, GAF's Chief Creative Officer.

Speaking with Us Weekly, Mathison admitted it was a difficult decision to leave Hallmark for GAF. "I mean, Hallmark is where I started," he said, noting it was particularly tough to leave the "Hannah Swenson" series and longtime co-star Alison Sweeney. "That's hard," he said. But, from another perspective, the people at Great American are the people that I started with at Hallmark, so it's like coming home ..."

Rhiannon Fish was born in Calgary, Alberta, but wound up Down Under when she was still young after she and her family moved to Australia. Her talent as an actor was evident when, as a teenager, she was cast as Summer Hoyland in the long-running and hugely popular Aussie soap, "Neighbours." As Fish explained in an interview with The Perfect Blend, she hadn't worked professionally as an actor before that. "'Neighbours' was my first professional acting gig," she said. "My agent just sent me out the script and then I auditioned." Fish went on to spend a few years on another popular Australian soap, "Home and Away," she returned to North America and began booking film and TV work, including a recurring role in the sci-fi series "The 100."

In 2020, Fish joined the Hallmark family with a supporting role in the rom-com "You're Bacon Me Crazy." That led to starring roles on the Hallmark Channel in movies including "The 27-Hour Day," "Journey of My Heart," "A Splash of Love," and, more recently, 2024's "A Costa Rican Wedding." 

The acting career of Hallmark star Andrew Walker began when he was a kid in his hometown of Montreal, attending elementary school. "I was in a lunch-time drama program, then my teacher started an agency and began sending me out for auditions," he recalled in an interview with From the Desk. "My dad would take time off work to drive me [to] downtown Montreal to audition, then I booked my first audition when I was 12 years old and I immediately became addicted to the industry."

At age 20, Walker and a pal drove to Los Angeles, where he began pursuing what would ultimately become a highly successful acting career. Walker made his Hallmark Channel debut with "A Bride for Christmas" back in 2012 and never looked back. In fact, he's starred in more than 20 Hallmark Channel productions, including several holiday flicks, a few non-Christmas rom-coms, and the "Curious Caterer Mysteries" movies. Walker was particularly busy in 2024 and headlines two Hallmark Christmas movies: "Jingle Bell Run" and "The Wiser Men and a Boy," a sequel to 2022's "Three Wise Men and a Baby." 

For Walker, the experience of working for Hallmark has been unparalleled. "Nothing that I do really feels like work with Hallmark," he told TV Goodness. "I'm showing up at Christmas Tree lightings and Christmas conventions and it's all fun. I'm so fueled by the magic of it all. We just have such a great time hanging out with each other."

Cindy Busby has portrayed American characters in numerous Hallmark productions, but she's Canadian through and through. "I grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, Quebec, Canada and as long as I can remember, I wanted to be an actress," she told Voyage LA. Her big break happened when she was cast as Ashley Stanton in the Canadian-made TV drama "Heartland," remaining with the show from 2007 until 2014. "Throughout the years, I shot over 50 episodes, and 'Heartland' is the most popular Canadian television show ever produced, syndicated in over 81 countries around the world, and a fan favorite on Netflix," Busby added.

It was in 2014, in fact, that Busby appeared in her first Hallmark Channel movie, "Lucky in Love," and that same year joined the cast of Hallmark's "Cedar Cove." That unleashed the Hallmark floodgates, with Busby going on to star in "Unleashing Mr. Darcy," the "Hailey Dean Mystery" franchise, and numerous others, including "Chasing Waterfalls," "Marry Me in Yosemite," and "A Whitewater Romance."

As those titles demonstrate, Busby has become Hallmark's go-to star for romance movies set in the great outdoors. As she explained in an interview with Just Jared, those nature-based scripts "just kind of kept coming my way and I'm super grateful for it because I love the outdoors, I love nature."

A native of Calgary, Victor Webster has been a Hallmark Channel staple since headlining his first Hallmark movie, 2012's "Puppy Love." Since then, he's starred in the "Hannah Swenson Mystery," the "Matchmaker Mysteries" franchises, and numerous made-for-TV films.

Interestingly, Webster didn't set out to become an actor; he was in a "normal" non-showbiz career (he worked as a stockbroker and ran an import/export firm) while doing some modeling on the side. Modeling, in fact, led him to be discovered by a casting agent, leading to a role in the short-lived daytime soap "Sunset Beach," which led to a stint in "Days of Our Lives" between 1999 and 2000. Over the years, he's appeared in numerous films and TV series beyond the realm of Hallmark, including "Charmed," "Melrose Place," and "Castle."

Interviewed by TV Goodness, Webster explained that not only did Hallmark movies reunite him with actors he'd worked with before in previous Hallmark projects, but he also feels like he's contributing to adding more positivity to the world. "That's what I love about Hallmark," he said. "People can sit down and watch a Hallmark movie and they feel better afterwards than they did at the beginning. They feel better about life, they feel better about family. They believe good things are possible. And that's the reason why I started doing Hallmark movies and continue to do them, because it's a beautiful, positive message."

As a kid growing up in Toronto, Brooke D'Orsay was a little girl with big aspirations — not to become an actor, but rather an athlete. Having trained in gymnastics since the age of five, D'Orsay's entrance into the world of showbiz came when she was a teenager, hired to appear in a TV commercial for a Canadian department store. "It was a 10-minute commercial with dancers and gymnasts and all these things," she told Cape Cod Times. "I was a gymnast, so I got my union card because I could do a backflip."

That led to guest-starring in various TV series and small movie roles, before becoming a member of the voice cast on the animated teen comedy "6Teen." Beyond her numerous Hallmark movies, D'Orsay is best known for playing Paige Collins on "Royal Pains." 

For D'Orsay, making Hallmark movies has been gratifying on many levels. "It's so exciting to watch this genre grow!" the Hallmark holiday veteran told The Harlton Empire. "It's not so much a message that I hope people take away, but a feeling. My hope is that fans continue to tune into these movies to smile and to feel good. I think when it comes down to it, all we really want is to feel good. And these movies do just that."

As a young actor, Calgary native Brennan Elliott's first screen credit was in the music video for Canadian rocker Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway," which opened the door to small film and TV roles. His breakthrough role came in 2000 when he was cast as Dr. Nick Biancavilla in the Lifetime series "Strong Medicine." He's also guest-starred on such hit series as "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives," "NCIS," and many others.

Elliott logged his first Hallmark movie in 2012, "Cupid," and the Hallmark hits kept coming. Subsequent projects included the Hallmark series "Cedar Cove," the "Crossword Mysteries" and "Flower Shop Mysteries" franchises, and various movies — in which he's frequently paired with Lacey Chabert.

Having appeared in so many Hallmark Channel projects, Elliott is gratified that the company has been pushing the envelope in recent years. "Hallmark now is trying to broaden its brand and tell stories that are diverse ..." he said in a 2024 interview with the "Suspenders Unbuttoned" podcast. "The last four or five movies I've done have been really out of the box in regards to that Hallmark trope of small town and all that ..." he added. "Which obviously has its place, and I've done many of those movies and love doing them."

For fans of Hallmark Channel's beloved "When Calls the Heart" — a.k.a. Hearties — Pascale Hutton will always be best known as Rosemary Coulter. Born and raised in the small British Columbia town of Creston, Hutton studied acting in college and then moved to Vancouver to pursue an acting career. She quickly began landing roles, leading her to appear in such Vancouver-shot TV series as "Dead Like Me," "Smallville," and "Supernatural." That led to a starring role in the Canadian drama series "Arctic Air," set in the Northwest Territories.

As Hutton told The PC Principle, she was cast in "When Calls the Heart" after the end of "Arctic Air," which found her shifting from deep drama to the delightful fluffiness of Hallmark. "So, to go from that to 'When Calls The Heart' which is so light and full and the character is larger than life was such a welcome change," she explained. "You know, you play the same types of characters for a while it's fun to shake things up and that is what this character was for me on 'When Calls the Heart.'"

In addition to "When Calls the Heart" (which also films in Vancouver), Pascale has also starred in her fair share of Hallmark movies, including "My One and Only," "You Had Me at Aloha," and "The Perfect Bride." In 2024, Hutton launched her own potential franchise, starring as the titular Nelly in "Nelly Knows Mysteries: A Fatal Engagement."

Born in Toronto, Tyler Hynes grew up on a 60-acre ranch in rural Ontario and landed his first paid acting gig at age eight when he was cast in a Toronto stage production of "A Christmas Carol" mounted by Young People's Theatre. He was subsequently cast in the title role for a Canada-wide touring production of "Tommy," the stage musical adapted from The Who's iconic rock opera.

Theater led Hynes to movie and television roles in his native Canada, including such homegrown TV series as "Heartland," "Saving Hope," and cop show "19-2." More recently, Hynes is front and center in Hallmark Channel's 2024 holiday rom-com "Holiday Touchdown," an NFL-themed rom-com produced in conjunction with 2024 Super Bowl champs the Kansas City Chiefs, while also starring in "Three Wiser Men and a Boy." During his career, Hynes has headlined more than 20 Hallmark movies, many of them holiday movies.

Hynes first entered the world of Hallmark Christmas movies when he was cast opposite singer LeAnn Rimes in 2018's "It's Christmas, Eve." As he told TV Goodness, he didn't realize at the time that a whole new world was opening up for him. "And I had no idea what was going on or what I was in for," he recalled. "And there were sentences like, 'Once you do one, you're in the family.' And I thought, 'What is this? Is this the mafia? What is going on right now?'"

To say that Ottawa-born Kimberly Sustad has a long association with Hallmark is an understatement. One of her first screen credits is the 2012 Hallmark Channel movie "A Bride for Christmas" (co-starring with fellow Canadian Andrew Walker). Since then, she's starred in well a dozen Hallmark movies.

In recent years, Sustad has also been venturing behind the camera to try her hand at screenwriting — and quite successfully at that. After co-starring with fellow Hallmark star Paul Campbell in "A Godwink Christmas," the two actors wanted to do something with less sentimentality and more laughs. "And I think one day he was like, 'Have you ever thought about writing one?' And I was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, no. But I do have this idea.' And I soft pitched him 'Christmas by Starlight,' and he said, 'Oh, that's a great idea. Let's write it.' I was like, 'Are you insane?'" she recalled. 

They then began writing together, co-writing the script for "Christmas By Starlight," in which they also starred, as well as the Hallmark holiday hit "Three Wise Men and a Baby" (with both starring in that one as well). That latter film's success led them to write a sequel, 2024's "Three Wiser Men and a Boy."

Originally hailing from London, Ontario, Hallmark star Luke Macfarlane has enjoyed lots of success as an actor, both in and out of the world of rom-coms. Notable non-Hallmark projects have included the TV drama "Brothers & Sisters," the sci-fi series "Killjoys," the Apple TV+ comedy "Platonic," and "Bros," where he partnered with comedian Billy Eichner. Meanwhile, he's also starred in more than a dozen Hallmark movies, ranging from holiday fare ("Catch Me if You Claus") to seasonal rom-coms ("A Valentine's Match").

What makes Macfarlane's success all the sweeter is that it's come on his own terms. In 2008, he came out as openly gay, a decision he realized could risk his future career prospects. Admitting her was "terrified" of what could happen, he also could no longer remain closeted. "I don't know what will happen professionally, but I guess I can't really be concerned about what will happen, because it's my truth," he told the Globe and Mail (via The Advocate).

In a subsequent interview with the Globe and Mail, Macfarlane admitted that he had no idea that starring in a Hallmark movie would lead to so many more. "I would've never thought when I did my first Hallmark movie seven years ago that I'd end up doing 13 of them," he said. "But I love every minute of it. They are romantic comedies, after all."