Hallmark Actor Finally Back to Filming After ‘Tough Few Years’

Heavy/Getty Former Hallmark actor Torrance Coombs is celebrating landing a new role after a dry spell in Hollywood.

After several years out of the spotlight, Hallmark Channel alum Torrance Coombs is back in front of the camera and celebrating his return to acting. The former “Reign” star has been bartending in Los Angeles to make ends meet, but told fans via Instagram on September 13, 2024, that he’s relieved to be “back on sets again.”

“It’s been a tough few years for myself and so many of my friends working in film and TV,” Coombs wrote beneath a selfie taken inside his on-set trailer, which he tagged as being located in Vancouver. “Pandemic, strikes, and a changing landscape for how content is made and consumed.”

“Feeling incredibly blessed to be back on sets again,” Coombs continued. “Can’t wait to share more when I’m able. Stay cool, friends 💙”

Coombs received supportive comments from multiple Hallmark stars and fans who’ve missed seeing him on the small screen. Though he initially didn’t reveal what he’s been working on, Coombs, 41, celebrated on September 19 in his Instagram Stories after Hallmark announced its 2024 Christmas movie lineup, including a Hallmark+ original he co-stars in. He’ll appear with Ashley Newbrough in “Unwrapping Christmas: Lily’s Destiny,” premiering on November 21.

Torrance Coombs is Among Many Stars Impacted by Budget Cuts in Entertainment

Coombs has appeared on multiple well-known TV series during his career, including “The Tudors,” “Endgame,” “Heartland,” and his role on “Reign” from 2013 to 2016, per IMDb.

He ventured into rom-coms starting in 2018 at Hallmark, with “Royally Ever After” opposite Fiona Gubelmann and 2020’s “Romance in the Air” with Cindy Busby, released in the midst of the pandemic. In 2021, he starred in Great American Family‘s “Much Ado About Christmas” as well as a thriller called “Around Robin.”

But since then, acting work has been hard to find — not just for Coombs, but for many actors who’ve struggled in recent years. According to a February report by Deadline, budget cuts — especially since the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike — have caused a significant decrease in projects and lower pay for roles actors do book, “making it hard for many working actors to afford their rent or mortgage and support their families.”

One unnamed veteran TV executive told Deadline in March, “I’ve seen lots of downturns, lots of job losses but I’ve never seen anything like this. This is a full-scale depression for the entertainment industry.”

So the news that Coombs is back on set for a new project thrilled many of his friends and fans, including Hallmark’s Busby, who dropped five applause emoji in the comments, and Paul Campbell, who wrote, “Atta boy!”

Benjamin Ayres shared Coombs’ post in his Instagram Stories and quipped, “This is @torrancecoombs and he’s a pretty cool guy.”

Actress Ali Hillis wrote on Coombs’ post, “Love this face, in person or on the screen. But I’m so so happy ur gonna be back up there!! ❤”

“When Calls The Heart” actress Johanna Newmarch, who’s been filming the show’s 12th season in Vancouver, quipped, “um, i have not been notified of your arrival. RUDE 😜😍”

Torrance Coombs Reflects on ‘Hilarious Duality’ Between Being a Bartender & Actor

In October 2023, Coombs talked with “Podcast of a Generation” host Myles Dobson about coming to grips with not always having an acting job, and revealed that he was also working as a bartender to make ends meet while waiting for his next acting gig or fan convention.

“I still on occasion will get paid a bunch of money to travel to a place in the world and do a convention to meet people and sign autographs, or I might be the bartender at your Bar Mitzvah for, like, $100, you know what I mean? So yeah, that’s where my life is at right now.”

Coombs was even one of the featured experts interviewed for a September 4 Chowhound article about vodka, described as an “experienced bartender in Los Angeles” with no mention of his work as an actor.

“It’s this hilarious duality,” he told Dobson on the podcast. “Sometimes I’m working my butt off with a with a specific skill set in the service industry for very little money, and sometimes I just show up and exist and people throw a bunch of money and love at me and that’s an interesting duality.”

Coombs later said those circumstances have taught him that “it’s probably useful and instructive as an artist to never put yourself in a box.”

“(We’re) always a work in progress,” Coombs reflected. “Like the art itself, it’s never finished. You’re a work in progress and you don’t have to be any one thing forever and you can also do other things.

“It’s taken me a minute to come around to that because I defined myself as an actor for so long and was able to do just that,” Coombs said. “So to kind of suffer that ego death but then discover there’s other things I’m good at. Going back and becoming a bartender doesn’t mean I’m never going to act again, it doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest in it.”

Born and raised in Vancouver, where many Hallmark projects are filmed, LA-based Coombs said during the podcast that he was reticent to move back to Canada.

“Something compels me to stay in LA,” he admitted. “I don’t know if I’m just hooked on the idea of what it could be, you know, the vastness of the dreams down here.”

“But also, you know, it is also a place where dreams go to die,” he joked, “so there has to be a certain amount of delusion to stay down here and keep plugging away at it. But then sometimes it works for people and I’ve had some success in the past, so I don’t know.”