10 ‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestants Compete to Be Hallmark’s Next Big Star

Watch out, Tyler Hynes! Hallmark’s first-ever reality competition — “Finding Mr. Christmas” — aims to find the network’s next Christmas movie heartthrob, with the winner co-starring in the new original Hallmark Channel movie “Happy Howlidays” opposite longtime romcom actress Jessica Lowndes.

Premiering on Hallmark+ on October 31, 2024, the eight-episode series — developed and hosted by longtime Hallmark star and self-professed reality TV fanatic Jonathan Bennett — will whittle down the pool of 10 handsome contestants by running them through a series of romcom-related challenges.

Comedic actress Melissa Peterman co-stars as Bennett’s fellow lead judge, and a rotating roster of other Hallmark stars will appear each week to help judge the challenges (including Hynes, one of Hallmark’s leading heartthrobs).

“We always knew it’d be a bunch of fun guys looking hot in Christmas sweaters, doing silly challenges,” Bennett told TV Insider of the contestants. “But what we didn’t expect was the amount of heart and vulnerability to come through in these episodes. … There were moments when I said, ‘Can we get a take without them crying?’”

So who are the 10 talented men vying for the “Mr. Christmas” title? Heavy has compiled details on all 10 contestants (alphabetized by their last names). Catch them all in action beginning October 31 on Hallmark+, with new episodes streaming each Thursday.

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Daxton Bloomquist

Daxton Bloomquist, 36, is an actor who hails from Kansas and now lives in Los Angeles with his dog, CharlieAnn. His most high-profile TV gig to date was playing one of the dancers in Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales” series, per IMDb. After a five-year absence from stage productions, he starred in “Jersey Boys” at Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Theatre in September.

While filming “Finding Mr. Christmas,” Bloomquist told Entertainment Weekly, “I think I should be Hallmark’s next male star because we need even more inclusivity for the gay community, and I want to be that person — the next generation to come up and show that small-town kids from Kansas who are part of that LGBTQ+ community can also be in the limelight.”

Bloomquist’s Instagram feed, with over 13,000 followers at the time of the show’s launch, features plenty of shirtless photos and posts promoting his work, which includes “Blondies Out Loud” — a new podcast about “Finding Mr. Christmas,” co-hosted with fellow contestant Hayden Maher.

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Parker Gregory

Parker Gregory, 39, lives in Texas with his wife, a chiropractor, and their eight-year-old son, but jets off to New York City for his many modeling gigs. The 6’2 model has posed for a bevy of fashion labels, from Armani to Calvin Klein Jeans.

His Instagram profile, where he has nearly 42,000 followers, says he’s also a fitness coach and a “lover of peanut butter cookies.”

Gregory told Swooon that his favorite Hallmark movie is “Haul Out the Holly,” but the Hallmark star he’d love to be his onscreen love interest is Jane Seymour, who last appeared on the network in 2014’s “A Royal Christmas.”

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant David Habashy

David Habashy, 29, is a jack of all trades. According to Entertainment Weekly, he was born in Cairo, Egypt, but lives in Vancouver, where he’s both an aerospace engineer and a competitive MMA fighter.

But Habashy is also an aspiring actor, represented by Vancouver-based agency Trisko Talent, which has multiple Hallmark stars on its roster including Stephen Huszar, Jake Foy and Viv Leacock. Habashy told Swooon that the Hollywood leading man he looks up to most is Matthew McConaughey, and called his book “Greenlights,” released in 2020, “amazing.”

On Instagram, where he has close to 1,400 followers and just 12 posts, Habashy wrote on October 8 that he “cannot express what this show and these guys mean to me,” calling his time on “Finding Mr. Christmas” the “absolute wildest ride.”

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Blake Kelley

A native Texan, 36-year-old Blake Kelley was born in Beaumont, per Entertainment Weekly. He now lives in Austin, where one of his biggest passions is fitness. He was a wide receiver for Texas Tech, ran the Austin marathon in February 2024, and participated in the Spartan Hawaii Beast Race in 2021. He’s an avid hunter, too.

As “Finding Mr. Christmas” launches, Kelley has nearly 2,000 followers on Instagram, where he’s shared plenty of posts that’ll have new fans swooning. In November 2021, Kelley adopted a German Shepherd puppy named Deacon, who is his best bud and even has his own Instagram account. He’s also a doting “funcle” to his darling nephew (awww!).

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Hayden Maher

Hayden Maher, 30, is a native Australian who now lives in Los Angeles. If the accent doesn’t make you swoon, his passions might. When he’s not acting or coaching young talent, according to his website, Maher works for a children’s entertainment company in LA, where he’s a sought-after host for kids’ parties.

On top of being great with kids, Maher regularly volunteers at the Los Angeles Animal Shelter in Santa Monica and has his own line of matching owner-and-dog holiday sweaters, with a portion of proceeds benefitting the shelter. On Maher’s Instagram account, where he has about 1,200 followers, he shared a behind-the-scenes video in August from the shelter.

Maher co-hosts a new podcast, “Blondies Out Loud,” with fellow “Finding Mr. Right” contestant Daxton Bloomquist, all about their experiences, which has us thinking they both might be among the last men standing on the show.

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Elijah Malcomb

2024 has been a whirlwind for 31-year-old Elijah Malcomb. In addition to landing one of the 10 spots on “Finding Mr. Christmas,” he became a first-time dad over Labor Day weekend to daughter Naomi Jade, with his girlfriend Ashley.

Malcomb, who’s from New Jersey, spent five years touring with the national production of “Hamilton,” per EW. He left the show in 2023 to explore new opportunities, he told his 23,000 Instagram followers.

He told Swooon he thinks he’d make the best “Mr. Christmas” thanks to his “winning smile, big heart and, of course, my commitment to family.”

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Ezra Moreland

Born and raised in Kansas, 31-year-old Ezra Moreland is a former Navy rescue diver and is now an LA-based model.

Amidst plenty of shirtless photos to appease his 70,000 Instagram followers, Moreland also loves encouraging them to be kind and find joy. On his 30th birthday in February 2023, for instance, Moreland posted a video in which he said his birthday wish ws for each of his followers “to just smile at somebody, as cheesy as that sounds.” He grinned as he imagined the “magic and love being spread” through that small gesture.

Moreland, who’s single, told Swooon that the Hallmark star he’d choose to be his onscreen love interest in a future movie is Nikki DeLoach, who does appear on “Finding Mr. Christmas” as a guest judge.

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Isaac Ramirez

Smoke show alert! While many of the contestants on “Finding Mr. Christmas” are relative unknowns, Los Angeles firefighter Isaac Ramirez, 28, has been turning heads on social media for a while now.

Ramirez, who told Swooon he is single, has 765,000 Instagram followers and a whopping 3.25 million followers on TikTok, where he posts brief videos of himself sporting everything from high fashion to his firefighter uniform (one such video has racked up over 18 million views). According to Entertainment Weekly, he’s a musical talent too, able to play piano, guitar, and cello.

Ahead of the “Finding Mr. Christmas” premiere, Ramirez was back at his fire station on October 30. He posted peeks from his workplace in his Instagram Stories and wrote, “You know you picked a good career when you enjoy coming into work. Missed the crew.”

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Gage Robinson

Los Angeles native Gage Robinson, 29, is a fitness instructor and part-time salesperson for LA Vodka, per his LinkedIn profile. Be he’s also a model and aspiring actor, appearing in the 2024 movie “Stupid Games,” available to stream via multiple platforms including Tubi and Amazon Prime.

Robinson told Swooon he is “very single” but said his Christmas movie crush is Zooey Deschanel in “Elf.” But the Hallmark actress he’d love to be paired up with onscreen, he said, is Brooke D’Orsay, saying she “radiates this beautiful sunshine energy.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, Robinson also loves working with kids, having been a swim coach and a “manny” for three boys in the past.

‘Finding Mr. Christmas’ Contestant Jonathan Wells

Last but not least, 27-year-old entrepreneur Jonathan Wells once competed in the USA Olympic Trials in track and field, per Entertainment Weekly, but told the outlet he’s “ready to pursue his dream of acting, using this competition as a stepping stone into a new chapter of his life.”

The Chicago entrepreneur launched his “Inspire More” podcast in 2023, featuring the stories of people who’ve turned their passions into reality. On Instagram, where he has close to 2,000 followers, Wells enjoys sharing the “behind the scenes” process of achieving his goals.

Wells, who’s single, told Swooon that he thinks the three traits that make him the perfect fit for being named “Mr. Christmas” are his “authenticity, my smile, (and) my love for people.”

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