After a particularly tough 2024, with multiple personal losses and professional speed bumps, actor Kristoffer Polaha took his New Year’s goal writing ritual particularly seriously. Envisioning what he truly wanted to experience and change in 2025, the beloved Hallmark star wrote 10 goals for the coming year and committed to keeping the list in his pocket every day — a constant companion throughout the year.
While chatting with EntertainmentNow on September 24, 2025, Polaha pulled out his trusty list and marveled that two of the professional goals he’d visualized nine months before are being realized simultaneously: premiering his directorial debut — the independent feature film “Mimics” — on September 25, and starring in a major new TV series.
Earlier in the day, Deadline reported that Polaha will star with Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi in the MGM+ series “American Hostage.” With perfect timing, the news broke just as Polaha was heading to Reno, Nevada, to realize another dream — attending the premiere screening of “Mimics” in his hometown.
Kristoffer Polaha Says He Never Imagined He’d Land a Series ‘This Exciting’
GettyAmong his list of goals for 2025, Polaha told EntertainmentNow he boldly wrote in January, “To land my series.”
“It was the first time I’d written that goal in a long time, but I wanted a series,” Polaha said. “And seeing it in writing, I put it out there, told my agent, my manager. They said, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’ I just never dreamt that it would be something this exciting.”
“American Hostage” will be based on the first season of Hamm’s podcast of the same name, per Deadline. Based on a true story in Indianapolis, the eight-episode season takes place in the 1970s, with Hamm playing Fred Heckman, a popular radio reporter who suddenly “finds himself in the middle of a life-and-death situation.”
A man named Tony Kiritsis, played by Ribisi, takes a hostage: Polaha’s character, local mortgage company president Dick Hall, whom Kiritsis considers a greedy, “cutthroat monster.” Kiritsis demands that Heckman interview him live on TV while he holds Hall hostage.
Kristoffer Polaha Predicts ‘People Are Going to Really Love’ New Series
“We’ll get to see, you know, what made these men who they are,” Polaha told EntertainmentNow of the series, co-created and executive produced by Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers. “It’s so suspenseful, and just a really excellent show — really, really, really well-written.”
“I’m excited to bring this thing to life because I think people are going to really love it,” Polaha continued. “It’s a fascinating chunk of American history that a lot of people have either forgotten or don’t remember.”
Filming in Winnipeg starting in late October, “American Hostage” will be the third time Polaha has worked onscreen with Hamm. Polaha was a guest star on an episode of “Landman” in late 2024, and he appeared on four episodes of “Mad Men.”
The last time Polaha was a series regular was in 2015’s “Backstrom.” The following year, he appeared in his first Hallmark movie, “Dater’s Handbook” with Meghan Markle, and quickly became a fan favorite on the network. He has since been in nearly 20 Hallmark movies, while also starring in feature films like “Jurassic Park: Dominion” and “Wonder Woman 1984.”
Kristoffer Polaha Achieves Another Goal: Launching His Feature Film ‘Mimics’
Meanwhile, Polaha is thrilled to see his movie “Mimics” coming to life with a premiere screening in Reno, where the film was shot. Polaha told EntertainmentNow he’s been dreaming of directing and starring in his own feature film since high school and this story — part comedy, part horror, part romance — has taken years to move from being an idea to a full-fledged movie.
“I am so proud of this, I can’t express to you the joy and the pleasure that I feel in knowing that I’ve brought this little thing into the world,” Polaha said, noting that “it would not have happened” without his producing partner Ken Carpenter, writer Marc Oakley, cinematographer Alex Yellen, and investors who made it possible.
“There’s a lot of key players,” he said. “It takes a lot of people saying yes to make a dream come true.”
At the Reno premiere on September 25, many of those key players will celebrate its completion — including co-stars like “Haul Out the Holly’s” Stephen Tobolowsky and “Saturday Night Live” alum Chris Parnell. The movie will be released in theaters on February 6, 2026, in partnership with distributor Panoramic Pictures.
In addition to preparing for the national release of “Mimics” and filming “American Hostage,” Polaha will also star in one of Hallmark’s biggest movies of the holiday season, “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas,” with Nikki DeLoach and a star-studded cast.
