The Primetime Drama That Starred Hallmark's Hunter King

Many fans may recognize Hunter King from her various TV projects. The actor has landed roles on shows like "Roswell," "Hidden Hills," "Dexter," "ER," "Hannah Montana," "Workaholics," and more. She's also appeared in films such as "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," and "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer." However, she has been making a name for herself as one of the Hallmark Channel's most beloved stars. Since partnering with the family-friendly network, King has starred in movies like "A Royal Corgi Christmas" and "Hidden Gems." She went on to sign a multi-picture deal with the company in 2022.

However, many fans likely know King from her two biggest roles. The first, as Summer Newman on "The Young and The Restless," where she portrayed a legacy character as the daughter of Phyllis Summers and Nick Newman. During King's time on the show, Summer found herself engaged in plenty of Genoa City drama, as well as romances with Luca Santori, Kyle Abbott, and Austin Travers, which always kept fans coming back for more.

Meanwhile, King also appeared on a primetime show that combined drama and comedy and allowed her to show off a new side of herself to viewers and gain new fans along the way.

Hunter King joined the cast of the CBS series "Life in Pieces" during its first season. The show debuted in 2015 and followed members of the Short family. Each episode was broken into four short stories that included the family's matriarch and patriarch, and their three children as they lived lives, raised their families, and dealt with the struggles of parenthood.

The series boasted a stellar cast including Colin Hanks (Greg Short), Betsy Brandt (Heather Hughes), Zoe Lister-Jones (Jen Short), Dan Bakkedahl (Tim Hughes), Dianne Wiest (Joan Short), and James Brolin (John Short). King was cast in the role of Clementine, a young and beautiful teenager who was the love interest of Heather's son, Tyler Hughes (Niall Cunningham). The family is stunned when they first meet Clementine and wonder how Tyler won over her affection. King became a series regular during Season 2 of the show. "To have a dramatic actress who excels at comedy is a rare find. From her first day on set, Hunter has felt like a member of our family, and we couldn't be more excited to make it official," the show's creator Justin Adler told Deadline of the actor. 

Meanwhile, Clementine went on to become an actual part of the Hughes/Short family when she married Tyler. The show ran for four seasons before ending its run in 2019. During this time, King was often pulling double duty as Clementine and her "Y&R" character.

During Hunter King's time as Clementine on "Life in Pieces," the actor got to work with many different stars like Martin Mull, J.B. Smoove, Josh Groban, Brenda Song, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Wallace Shawn, Molly Shannon, Leslie Jordan, Charlie Puth, and many more. However, she was also lucky enough to work with her real-life sister, Joey King.

Joey appeared in three episodes of the CBS series as a character named Morgan, a pregnant woman who was looking to place her unborn child up for adoption. Ultimately, Morgan picks characters Matt and Colleen to be the parents of her child, and the short arc gave the sisters their first on-screen scenes together, despite working in entertainment for more than a decade. Of course, the pair loved appearing together on the show and later revealed that they'd love to do more projects together. "I was so excited because, Hunter and I have always, always wanted to work together — we've talked about it countless times; it was our dream to be able to do something together," Joey told Entertainment Weekly.

In 2019, when the series ended, Hunter King shared an emotional goodbye to the show and the character of Clementine, revealing she had an amazing time working on the series, and will always carry those memories with her.