Former Hallmark Actress Explains Why She Left the Network

Heavy Danica McKellar shares the reason she left Hallmark.

Former Hallmark actress Danica McKellar moved to Great American Family in 2021. The move left some longtime fans surprised, given that she was considered a mainstay on the network.

In a new interview with former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Cheryl Burke, McKellar explained her decision.

“Great American Family Channel was started by the man who ran Hallmark Channel for twenty years. Bill Abbott is his name. I credit him with reviving my career, giving me this genre. I did like fifteen movies with him in a Hallmark channel. So when he left to start his own network and he asked me to come along, I was like, ‘yeah!'” McKellar said on the November 17 episode of the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast.

“It is so creatively fulfilling with the fact that I’m doing that. I’ve done two dance movies because I wanted to do dance movies, Like I’m just went way more involved,” she continued.

“They have given me opportunities to weave my faith into some of the stories. The really great situation. I’m so grateful for it, and I’m very grateful to Bill as well,” she added.

Danica McKellar Previously Shared That a ‘Multi-Picture Deal’ Was a Major Selling Point for Her

In a 2022 interview with Us Weekly, McKellar shared some of what she told Burke in 2024.

“Part of it was because I had the opportunity to do a multi-picture deal, which I hadn’t done at Hallmark, and also not just multi-picture, but also really being a producer, really helping to develop these stories from the beginning,” she said of her reasons for the switch to Great American Family.

“It’s more than just movies. There actually really is a GAC community that we’re developing. In fact, they have an app, they made an announcement a week or two ago, there’s an app where we’re creating our own content. The actors are, and it’s kinda like social media, but it’s more directed for the GAC audience,” she told the outlet.

While chatting with Burke, McKellar said more of the same.

“I never had an overall deal, and with Great America and I had these multi picture deals. They let me be way more involved in the writing and the producing,” she explained.

Danica McKellar Is Excited for Her Next Christmas Movie to Be Released

McKellar has starred in “Christmas at the Drive-In, “Swing Into Romance,” and “A Royal Date for Christmas” since leaving Hallmark. She also filmed “A Cinderella Christmas Ball,” which will premiere November 29 on GAF.

“I play a dance teacher who from Chicago, who was adopted as a young girl because her mom died when she was very young, and never knew my father. My father’s name isn’t even on the Birth certificate. My foster parents have just recently passed, and I’m going through a box of their things and I find a picture of my birth mom that I’ve never seen before, from the year before I was born, and she’s in a wedding dress and she’s holding hands with a man who’s taking the picture. She’s like and so this is the first evidence I’ve ever had of my dad,” McKellar shared of the new TV movie.

The film has its fair share of romance, too, of course.

McKellar also teased another film she has coming out in the spring. While she couldn’t say too much about it, she did say that she worked with someone who also did “Dancing With the Stars.” On November 14 — after McKellar recorded Burke’s podcast — Great American Family announced the film “Grounded,” which stars Trevor Donovan, who competed on season 31 of DWTS alongside Emma Slater.

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