Two decades after skyrocketing to fame on Nickelodeon’s hit series “Drake & Josh,” actor and social media influencer Josh Peck says his next career goal is to star in a Hallmark Channel movie.
On March 14, 2025, Peck posted a YouTube segment from an August 2024 episode of his “Good Guys” podcast, in which he declared, “I have a big revelation here today guys, which is I think I’m finally ready for a Hallmark movie. I just want to be in one.”
In the clip, Peck revealed that he previously turned Hallmark down while he was preparing for a dramatic role in the Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer,” but said he was “ready to be light, happy, and free.”
Josh Peck Pitched Interfaith Hallmark Movie Idea During Podcast
When Peck shared the clip on YouTube, where he has nearly 3.5 million subscribers, he hilariously manipulated the movie poster for Hallmark’s 2019 film “Christmas On My Mind.” Peck edited in a photo of himself over Hallmark star Andrew Walker, placing himself next to co-star Ashley Greene.
Peck’s guest on the August episode was best-selling author and fellow social media influencer Claudia Oshry, who is a huge Hallmark fan. She was thrilled to hear about Peck’s new interest in appearing on the network.
“Someone I know was in one and I had a million questions,” she told him. “This person, who has worked on a lot of TV shows and stuff … was like, ‘It is hands down the best gig in the industry.”
“From the trailers to craft services, it’s like really premium for the actors,” she continued. “It’s a very respectful set, it’s very high budget in terms of like, actors first — I think you get paid really well — and I’ve heard fabulous things about the actual working experience.”
“I agree,” Peck told her. “I’m open, I’m ready, I’m ready to go. They had initially contacted me when I was about to go do ‘Oppenheimer,’ and I was just in that ‘Oppenheimer’ place. Your boy’s a method actor. But right now I am ready to be light, happy and free.”
When Oshry asked Peck what kind of role he envisioned for himself, suggesting he not do a Hanukkah movie just because he’s Jewish, he joked, “I agree. I’m down to go full Christmas and abandon my Judaism … I’m Christmas obsessed.”
But as he listened to Oshry, who’s also Jewish, describe how much she loves non-religious Christmas traditions like attending the Rockettes’ holiday show in New York City each year, Peck had an epiphany. What if, he pondered, his Hallmark movie was about an interfaith couple who combine their Jewish and Christmas traditions.
Mentioning many Jewish families’ custom of eating Chinese food on Christmas Day and joking that the eight days of Hanukkah is “better than one day of gifts,” Peck said, “Maybe it’s about … a Jewish kid from the Upper West Side, an interfaith Hallmark movie, and they blend their holidays.”
Josh Peck’s Hallmark Movie Idea Isn’t Exactly an Original Concept
Though podcast listeners were thrilled by the reminder that Peck is open to appearing on Hallmark soon, some alerted Peck that his movie idea wasn’t exactly original, including one viewer who commented on YouTube, “they’ve actually made that movie, Josh…”
A few months after Peck’s comments originally aired on his podcast, Hallmark premiered “Leah’s Perfect Gift.” Emily Arlook starred as Leah, who — according to Hallmark’s synopsis — is “a bonafide lover of Christmas – the trees, the ornaments, the eggnog! But she has always admired the holiday from afar because she’s Jewish. Though her family celebrates Hanukkah, Leah has longed to experience a traditional Christmas. When her boyfriend Graham invites her to spend the holidays with his classic Connecticut family, she eagerly accepts.”
Meawhile, former Nickelodeon star Marc Summers — who hosted the kid game show “Double Dare” — made his Hallmark debut in 2024’s “Hanukkah On The Rocks.”
No word yet on whether Peck has landed a future Hallmark movie, but fans would likely tune in if he does, including one who commented on his YouTube clip, “Omg I need to know if he’s in one!!!??? I would watch! ❤️😊 #chrismika”
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Josh Peck Says He’s ‘Finally Ready’ to Star in a Hallmark Movie