Nikki DeLoach is opening up about the deeply personal meaning behind her latest career milestone.
After her 2025 film, “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” took home a Gracie Award for Best TV Movie, the beloved Hallmark actress shared a heartfelt message on social media to celebrate the many people who helped bring the film to life. Alongside thanking the cast and crew involved in the project, DeLoach reflected on her experience being able to tell a story similar to that of her and her late dad. She shared that music was central to the bond they shared and explained why the film’s connection to the Grand Ole Opry carried special significance for her. She also praised Hallmark movies for the lasting impact they have on audiences.
DeLoach’s Dad Passed Before They Could Go to Grand Ole Opry Together
“We won a Gracie Award last night for Best TV Movie for ‘A Grand Ole Opry Christmas’ and I am so thrilled for our entire team!” DeLoach wrote in the caption of her May 20 Instagram post. “Thank you to the Alliance for Women in Media for this extraordinary honor and for the sacred work you do lifting up stories that center women and for this incredible honor. This project was a divine appointment and I’m in awe of the angels above and below who came together to create such a special movie…”
She went on to thank members of the cast, crew, and Hallmark executives for their contribution, including the director, Clare Niederpruem, whom she said led their team with “precision and grace.”
DeLoach also thanked the “angels” of the Grand Ole Opry for “allowing us to shine a light on that scared space.”
The actress then penned a beautiful celebration of her late dad’s memory. She wrote, “My love language with my dad was music. We always dreamed of going to The Opry together one day. He passed before we could. Never in my wildest did I imagine that one day I would stand in that storied circle, telling a story so similar to my own with my father. My dad was with me in every moment and I will never ever forget it.”
“‘A Grand Ole Opry Christmas’ is just one example of the power of [Hallmark Channel] movies, not just to offer love and joy, but also hope. Hope that it is never too late to pursue your dreams. And that those we’ve lost never truly leave us.”
“Dad, this one was for you,” DeLoach concluded.
DeLoach Discusses the Personal Connection to Her Character Gentry Wade
HallmarkThe film follows “Gentry Wade (DeLoach), daughter of late country music icon Jett Wade – half of the famed duo Winters & Wade – abandoned her dream of a songwriting career and distanced herself from her father’s legacy following his tragic accident 30 years prior. When the Grand Ole Opry invites her to represent Jett at their centennial celebration at Christmas, she’s hesitant to return to the place steeped in bittersweet memories. Encouraged by her good friends, Gentry visits the Opry and, while seated in one of the vaunted venue’s oak church pews, is suddenly transported to 1995. Gentry’s lifelong friend Mac (Kristoffer Polaha) a country music talent manager, finds himself in 1995 as well. Thanks to some Christmas magic, Gentry gets precious time with her father, creative inspiration to finish the song she began decades earlier as a teen and learns surprising answers to questions about her father that have followed her for the last three decades,” per Hallmark Channel’s official synopsis.
The film stars DeLoach and Polaha, with cameos by Bill Anderson, Brad Paisley, Dailey & Vincent, Drew Baldridge, Jamey Johnson, Maggie Baugh, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Pam Tillis, Rhett Akins, Riders in the Sky, Suzy Bogguss, Tigirlily Gold, and T. Graham Brown.
“It’s all part of the miracle that was this movie in my life, and it wasn’t just a God wink, it was like a God earthquake, the best, and one of the most profound experiences of my life, because when I tell you that my dad from above showed up and showed off, and God brought every single miracle you could ever imagine, and it all came together in this one project that I am so profoundly honored to be a part of,” DeLoach said in an interview with TV Goodness.
She continued on about how she could relate to the “heartbreak” of walking away from her dream of having a career in music, as well as the loss of her father. “And then she’s going back in time to be reconnected,” DeLoach said of her character. “What I wouldn’t give, and in a way I’m being reconnected with my dad, right through the Opry, through this character by singing again for the first time in years. What that did to awaken my soul and connect me back to my dad. It was like he was saying, ‘Thank you. I told you not to give up.’ I could just feel that inside of her.”
