Former Gilmore Girls Actors Who Have Been In Hallmark Movies

For "Gilmore Girls" fans, rewatching the show and getting to go back to Stars Hollow is peak comfort TV with relatively low-stakes storylines, quirky characters, and picturesque settings. Featuring the fast-talking mother-daughter duo of Lorelei and Rory Gilmore, played by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, respectively, "Gilmore Girls" ran from 2000 to 2007 with a somewhat controversial four-episode Netflix revival called "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" debuting in November 2016. The revival brought us creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's final four words for the show that she'd had in mind for years. Not everyone loved how the revival series ended with those much-anticipated final four words and some even think that an alternative ending to "Gilmore Girls" might have made more sense considering it ended as a cliffhanger instead of a neatly tied up storyline — not really ideal for a comfort show.

But there's one tried and true mainstay for comfort TV, and that's Hallmark Channel original movies — people love to watch Hallmark movies in part for the reliability of getting a happy ending — no cliffhangers here! And as "Gilmore Girls" actors moved on from Stars Hollow, some of them ended up on the Hallmark Channel. So for those who want to combine their love for "Gilmore Girls" and their love of Hallmark, these are the "Gilmore Girls" actors who've starred in Hallmark Original movies.

It's always exciting to see actors from your favorite show pop up in another project. So those fans who shipped Lorelei and Christopher in "Gilmore Girls" are surely pleased to see David Sutcliffe, who played Christopher, starring in Hallmark's "The Convenient Groom." Airing in June 2016, shortly before the "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" came out, it marked Sutcliffe's fourth Hallmark movie.

Before "The Convenient Groom," Sutcliffe starred as Nick in Hallmark's 2015 movie "Charming Christmas." His character helps Meredith Rossman, played by Julie Benz, find her love for Christmas again. In "The Wish List," released in 2010, Sutcliffe plays Fred Jones opposite Jennifer Esposito as the man who doesn't seem perfect on paper. And in 2009's "Before You Say 'I Do,'" Sutcliffe falls in love with Jennifer Westfeldt's character with an added time travel twist. Spoiler, unlike how things ended between Chris and Lorelei on "Gilmore Girls," Sutcliffe's character pretty much always gets the girl in the end. It's what we want in a good Hallmark romance!

Sutcliffe retired from acting in 2019, saying: "It was a long time coming. My heart hasn't been in it for years, but it wasn't easy letting go of a career that gave me so much for so long," per The U.S. Sun.

Alexis Bledel's first big acting gig was "Gilmore Girls," and she's stayed busy after the series ended. Bledel went on to play Lena in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" as well as Ofglen in the hit show "The Handmaid's Tale," for which she won an Emmy in 2018.

But you may not know that Bledel starred in a Hallmark movie. Bledel's Hallmark debut was in 2013 in "Remember Sunday" and her co-star was none other than Zachary Levi, who you might know from the TV show "Chuck" or the movie "Shazam!" He was also making his first Hallmark movie appearance. Bledel plays Molly, a free-spirited waitress, who falls for Gus, a jewelry store clerk with a secret — he can't retain short-term memories after having had a brain aneurysm years before. So each day that they spend together, he falls in love with her anew.

Bledel talked about liking the project with Hallmark when she got the script. "When I read it, I thought it was a really human story," Bledel explained via YouTube. "And when you read the script, you really do care about what happens to both of these people." It sounds similar to the feeling that people had about Bledel's character in "Gilmore Girls" — people really cared about what happened to Rory. So that could explain some of the backlash that the revival episodes got when it came to the evolution of Rory.

After just a week in Los Angeles, Arielle Kebbel booked the role of Lindsay Forester, née Lister for nine episodes of the original run of "Gilmore Girls."And while she didn't have the most screen time and didn't make it into the Netflix revival episodes, her character definitely played a major role in the plot. Lindsay ended up dating and then marrying Dean Forester, played by Jared Padalecki, who notably was Rory's first boyfriend in the series. And their marriage ending was blamed, at least by Lindsay's mom on the show, by the affair between Rory and Dean. When asked what she thought her character would be doing now, Kebbel told EW, that Lindsay would be, "making meatloaf for her best girl friends." Dean who?

Kebbel gets a happier romantic ending in the 2012 Hallmark movie "A Bride for Christmas," playing Jessie Patterson, who has had three failed engagements but still manages to find love with Aiden, played by Andrew Walker. Kebbel also finds love as Georgie Dwyer in "Bridal Wave." Airing on Hallmark Channel in 2015, Kebbel's character has to decide between going through with her wedding to her plastic surgeon fiancé or following her heart with ex-architect Luke Griggs, played by none other than her "A Bride for Christmas" love interest Andrew Walker.

Chad Michael Murray played private school bad boy Tristan Dugray with a crush on Rory on 11 episodes of "Gilmore Girls," and his time on the show ended with his character being sent to military school. Murray had to leave "Gilmore Girls" after getting parts in other teen TV shows, including "One Tree Hill."

Murray has definitely stayed busy, and he gets the award for most Hallmark movies by a "Gilmore Girls" alum — with a grand total of five! Three of them were Christmas movies, and what Hallmark fan doesn't love a Christmas movie? "Love in Winterland" saw Murray play Brett, the high school sweetheart of Ally, played by Italia Ricci. He played Luke in "Write Before Christmas," which highlights the power of the handwritten letter. And Murray was Danny Wise in "Road to Christmas," in which he ends up falling for rival TV producer Maggie Baker, played by Jessy Schram.

Murray got away from the snow and onto the beach for a couple of Hallmark films. In 2018, he was in "The Beach House," which also featured Minka Kelly and Andie MacDowell. In 2021, he played Brody in "Sand Dollar Cove," a man who is working to protect his hometown fishing pier from being torn down by resort project manager Elli, played by Aly Michalka. That may have been Murray's last Hallmark movie as Murray is one of the Hallmark stars who seem to have left the network for Great American Family.