Ashley Williams Says Hallmark Pal Nikki DeLoach Was Made For Her Next Big Career Move (EXCLUSIVE)

Beloved Hallmark actresses Ashley Williams and Nikki DeLoach have fiercely supported each other onscreen and off for years, first connecting in a Los Angeles acting class two decades ago.

Along the way, their lives have mirrored each other in countless ways, including that both are moms to two young boys, both have become Hallmark Channel superstars, and both lost a parent to a form of dementia, channeling some of their shared grief into massive fundraisers for the Alzheimer’s Association.

Now, their paths have beautifully converged again, as Williams officially welcomes DeLoach into Hallmark’s Make Her Mark mentorship and development program for aspiring female directors — a role that Williams, who founded the program, says DeLoach was made for.

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Ashley Williams Says She Always Envisioned Nikki DeLoach Becoming Part of Make Her Mark

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In November 2025, DeLoach was named as one of five women in the newest class of Make Her Mark mentees, a group selected from over 400 applicants that Williams told EntertainmentNow “truly blew me away.” The others are Angie Nolan, Hannah Michielsen, Huriyyah Muhammad, and Sarah Wilson Thacker.

“Most of them have film degrees; they’re incredibly well trained,” Williams said of the new class. “Some of them have been working in the industry for more than 10 years, even 20 years. They’ve directed a bunch of short films already, or have been ADs (assistant directors) for TV shows. They have all the makings of a really successful career in directing, and just haven’t been given the opportunity.”

DeLoach, in addition to appearing in over 20 Hallmark movies, has been focused on cultivating her work as a screenwriter in recent years with her creative partner Megan McNulty, including writing Hallmark’s “True Justice” franchise (two new movies are expected to be released in 2026). When the “Grand Ole Opry Christmas” star decided she was ready to move into the directing space, too, Williams was thrilled to welcome her into the Make Her Mark program.

“To be clear, when I first pitched the Make Her Mark program, Nikki’s picture was on the front of the pitch packet,” she told EntertainmentNow. “She, to me, is a quintessential face of this program. Like, she’s exactly what we’re aiming for.”

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Ashley Williams Says Nikki DeLoach Went Above & Beyond to Earn Her Spot in the Make Her Mark Program

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Even though Williams always envisioned DeLoach being part of Make Her Mark, she told EntertainmentNow it was important that she show her commitment to the initiative in order to officially become part of the program.

She explained, “In a 15-day shoot on a low budget, the stakes are incredibly high for a first-time director, and so the truth is, you know, she needed to sort of work for it a little bit. And she did. She earned her spot. She basically shadowed three different movies, whereas most of our women only shadow one. And that’s after she acted in so many movies as the lead, which isn’t shadowing and isn’t necessarily director training, but it does, lead to an unbelievable knowledge of the craft and the task at hand.”

“I’ve always been her number one fan, and I’ve always loved her work,” Williams gushed, adding that she considers DeLoach part of a rare breed of “very intelligent actors who are also storytellers, who
consider the entire bird’s eye arc of a story. That’s Nikki. It’s why she became a writer. She can’t help herself — she gets into every single aspect of every movie that she works on. It’s her gift. She’s absolutely gifted.”

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Nikki DeLoach Thinks Her Writing Background Will Enhance Her Work as a Director

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Although DeLoach’s journey to becoming a director may not have been the typical route, Williams told EntertainmentNow she now thinks her work as a screenwriter will actually help her process.

Williams said, “When she started writing, I was like, ‘Writing!? You should be a director!’ But what’s amazing is, I think the writing is going to make her even an even better director, because she’s just got a such a great idea of the landscape of the story, the heart of the story, where it’s going, what that thread is that carries the audience through to the end.”

DeLoach agreed, telling EntertainmentNow, “I’m really, actually, glad that I did a pivot into writing, because it will make me a better director. I mean, truly. I think I write as a director, with the brain of a director. I’m imagining how we’re coming into a scene, how we’re coming out of a scene. If I can’t (envision) it, it’s hard for me to write it.”

“I think having the background of being a writer now for eight years, especially on (Hallmark) movies, I had to (think about) a certain budget, and there’s only so many locations,” DeLoach continued. “You’re looking at a script and going, ‘Okay, I can’t have five big set pieces — that’s money, money, money. That’s 150 background artists. So, my writer brain also thinks about a scene’s production, going, ‘What financially is possible within our genre, within our budget?’ And I think all of that will help (as a director).”

Now that DeLoach has shadowed on three movies, she’s waiting for the perfect opportunity to take the reins as director of her first Hallmark project. Meanwhile, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” franchise star Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe was the first woman mentored under the Make Her Mark banner, and she’s currently in the editing phase of directing her fourth Hallmark movie.