Real-Life Couple Kayla Wallace and Kevin McGarry Star in ‘My Grown-Up Christmas List’

Heat waves are sending temperates into the 100s across the United States, but it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas on the Hallmark Channel! Yes, the cable channel is in the middle of its “Christmas in July” programming event—and the installment airing tonight, Saturday, July 9, at 8 p.m., is My Grown-Up Christmas List.

And speaking of high temperatures, we have reason to expect hot chemistry between lead actors Kayla Wallace and Kevin McGarry — the co-headliners are a couple in real life! Here are more details about the movie that’s adding a dash of yule to our July.

Heat waves are sending temperates into the 100s across the United States, but it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas on the Hallmark Channel! Yes, the cable channel is in the middle of its “Christmas in July” programming event—and the installment airing tonight, Saturday, July 9, at 8 p.m., is My Grown-Up Christmas List.

And speaking of high temperatures, we have reason to expect hot chemistry between lead actors Kayla Wallace and Kevin McGarry — the co-headliners are a couple in real life! Here are more details about the movie that’s adding a dash of yule to our July.

“Based on the Amy Grant/David Foster hit holiday song of the same name, My Grown-Up Christmas List tells the heartwarming story of Taylor Nichols and Luke Malone and the special bond that grows between them over the course of several Christmases spent together and apart,” Hallmark explains in a synopsis of the movie.

Taylor is a journalist who chips in at her grandfather’s Christmas store in the wake of her mother’s passing a few years prior, the synopsis explains. Luke, meanwhile, is spending the holidays with his family on a break from military duty.

“When Taylor and Luke meet, their chemistry is undeniable, and we follow them along their journey from a warm friendship to a budding romance,” Hallmark adds. “They work together to overcome any challenges that arise and commit to making the most important wish on their Christmas list come true — to spend every Christmas together for the rest of their lives.”

Kayla has had small parts in the TV shows The Good Doctor, The Magicians, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, but she’s probably best known for playing telephone operator Fiona Miller on Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart.

Kevin, meanwhile, also has a role on When Calls the Heart: He stars as Royal North-West Mounted Police officer Nathan Grant. And he also had a longtime role on another Canada-set TV show, played ranch hand Mitch Cutty on the CBC family drama Heartland. His other roles, meanwhile, include episodes of Man Seeking Woman, Taken, The Bold Type, and Schitt’s Creek.

The two actors went Instagram-official with their off-screen relationship in November 2020, according to Heavy, and Entertainment Tonight confirmed that same day that they were an item.

Kayla and Kevin filmed this year’s Hallmark movie Feeling Butterflies together in Ottawa, Ontario, and then “found ourselves [in Ottawa] back a couple months later” to film My Grown-Up Christmas List, as Kayla told MediaVillage in a new interview.

And the snow you’ll see in the movie is real. The cast and crew actually filmed My Grown-Up Christmas List around the holidays, as Kayla revealed to Showbiz Cheat Sheet recently.

“Some of the shots are so beautiful,” she said, citing the work of director Andrew Cymek. “And it really helped that we filmed this at Christmastime when set [decoration] kind of continued on into the real world. … It was Christmas everywhere.”