'Grey's Anatomy' Star Jerrika Hinton Is Making Hallmark Christmas Movie History
This weekend’s Hallmark Christmas movie, A Majestic Christmas, stars Jerrika Hinton as an architect who returns to her hometown with a mission that makes her instantly unpopular: turn the town’s beloved local theater, the Majestic Playhouse, into a modern multiplex. After meeting the theater’s cynical new owner (Christian Vincent), she becomes determined to save the theater and change his mind.
To celebrate the premiere of A Majestic Christmas, here’s a few key things to know about Jerrika.
She’s a 'Grey’s Anatomy' veteran.
Jerrika, 37, is best known for her role as Stephanie Edwards on Grey’s Anatomy. Joining the show in its ninth season, Stephanie started as an intern in a recurring role, and later joined the main cast in season 10. In 2016, rumors surfaced that Jerrika would be leaving the show, after being cast in the lead role in Shonda Rhimes’s first comedy pilot, Toast.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the plan was for Jerrika to juggle both Toast and Grey’s Anatomy, with a reduced role on the latter. But Toast ultimately wasn’t picked up to series, and the experience inspired Hinton to take a step back, reassess, and ultimate decide to leave Grey’s.
“When Toast didn't go, I went away and had a spiritual summer in a lot of ways,” she told THR. “Shonda and I had a meeting at the beginning of season 13 where we talked about my departure and my creative process, and she was very supportive of my wishes, and I am eternally grateful to her for understanding."
A post shared by Jerrika Hinton (@hellojerrika) on May 18, 2017 at 8:59pm PDT
She’s also a writer and photographer.
A.k.a. a triple threat! Following her exit from Grey’s, Jerrika told Coveteur that she was planning to take some time out to travel and pursue her other creative passions. “I’m planning on getting back into photography,” she said. “There are stories to be told through that, possibly in conjunction with traveling, or possibly just around the streets of Los Angeles. I’ve also started writing again. I studied playwriting in college and it’s kind of a parallel love alongside acting. In the past few years, I’ve gotten to dip my toes back into it, whether it’s giving commencement speeches or going to Freya Project events [and telling] original stories.”
She’s making Hallmark history.
Along with Tatyana Ali, who starred in last weekend’s Christmas Everlasting, Jerrika is the first black actress to play a romantic lead in a Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel. Her co-star in A Majestic Christmas, Christian Vincent, is also the first black actor to play a romantic lead in a Hallmark channel Christmas movie. Also making Hallmark history this year is Christina Milian, who this year became the first black actress to play a romantic lead on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel, in the upcoming Memories of Christmas.
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