Danica McKellar to Return to Great American Family this Christmas; Will ‘Royal Christmas Ball’ Be Her Final Film on GAF?

The Great American Family channel is getting more Danica this holiday season! That’s according to an exclusive report from Deadline, which reveals that Danica McKellar will star in “Royal Christmas Ball” on the network, as part of a multi-picture deal she signed with GAF in 2021.

In addition to filling the starring role, McKellar also helped write the script and is serving as an executive producer on the film as well. “Royal Christmas Ball” will have McKellar’s fingerprints all over it when it debuts as part of the channel’s “Great American Christmas” lineup later in 2023.

The movie will see McKellar take on the role of Chelsea Shaw, a dance teacher from Chicago who is still missing her adoptive parents, though it’s been a long time since they passed. Shaw travels to a tiny European country over Christmas break to learn more about her heritage.

While there, she discovers the only way to access the information she wants about her biological family is via the royal family. To get it, she must agree to help teach a reluctant prince a special Christmas waltz in time for the royal ball. It’s a heartwarming tale about finding love and family, and it will be exclusively available on the Great American Family channel later this year.

Danica McKellar was also part of GAF's Great American Christmas in 2022 when she starred in “Christmas at the Drive-In” with Neal Bledsoe. In that film, she plays a property lawyer who works to prove that her town’s drive-in theater, a local institution that has served the community for decades doesn’t deserve to be closed down during the holidays. She’s willing to move heaven and earth to keep it open, but she didn’t bet on finding romance with the very person who is trying to sell the property.

Great American Christmas features a large and growing lineup of holiday films that can compete with the best Christmas originals out there, even titles from Hallmark Channel and Lifetime. The movie slate grew 50% in 2022 and was a big reason why GAF became the fastest-growing cable network of any channel in the fourth quarter of last year.

It remains to be seen if “Royal Christmas Ball” will be the last of Danica McKellar on GAF. The star was formerly a staple on the Hallmark Channel, appearing in a holiday movie on that network every year from 2015 to 2021. Her deal with GAF runs through the end of 2023, but expect the two sides to come together on a new deal as along with Candace Cameron Bure, McKellar is one of the longtime favorites of this style of romantic and holiday fare.