A Walk Through Grounds Brought Her to Acting. Now, She’s a Christmas Movie Star
It’s only fitting Jen Lilley’s University of Virginia story includes the type of fairy tale elements that are now staples of her movies.
Lilley is an actress who you’ve likely seen this holiday season if you have access to the Hallmark, Lifetime or Great American Family channels. Her filmography comes with titles such as “The Spirit of Christmas,” “Mingle All the Way” and, her most recent work, “A Paris Christmas Waltz.”
These are the kinds of cozy, made-for-television flicks typically featuring a young woman in a snowy setting who finds love in a quirky way as part of an inevitable happy ending.
The gardens at UVA hold a special place in Lilley’s heart. It’s there where the 2007 graduate was proposed to by now-husband Jason Wayne. (Contributed photo)
Lilley, you could say, was destined to be a Wahoo. She’s the daughter of UVA alumni who said she dreamed of being admitted to the University since she was 3. Once that goal was achieved in the early 2000s, the Roanoke native then literally stumbled upon her future career during a routine walk around Grounds.
“I found acting by happenstance at UVA because there were posters all over for an open audition for an independent film called ‘The Loss of Life,’” Lilley said. “I ended up booking the female lead opposite Alexis Ohanian.”
While Ohanian went on to found Reddit and marry tennis superstar Serena Williams, Lilley, who came to UVA with the intention of studying Spanish, found fame by continuing on an acting path.
She graduated in 2007 with a drama degree (with a minor in environmental science). But before leaving for Hollywood, she was proposed to by her now-husband, Jason Wayne, in a UVA pavilion garden after a symbolic dinner at the now-defunct Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse Restaurant on Fontaine Avenue.
“My parents had their first date at the Schnitzelhouse,” Lilley said. “So it was special.”
Whether in real life or on a set, Lilley has long had a knack for playing a main character in a charming narrative. It’s a movie plotline that pairs well with Christmas.
Lilley has starred in nine Christmas-themed TV films since 2015.
“It’s so funny because they’re not highbrow movies,” she said, “but you’d be surprised that our biggest fans are people like homicide detectives and Supreme Court justices. With everything going on in the world – the uncertainty, the pandemic, the war, all of that – we’re like the mac and cheese of TV. We try to make people feel good.”
“A Paris Christmas Waltz,” which premiered on Nov. 19, is Lilley’s latest Christmas movie. (Contributed photo)
Lilley calls this genre, which has proven to be highly popular with viewers this time of year, “fairy tales for adults.”
“People just want to sit down with a warm bowl of macaroni and cheese and know exactly where the movie is going,” she said. “They can do their laundry and not miss a beat.”
A series regular on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” from 2013 to 2016, Lilley took on consistent roles in Christmas films shortly thereafter. Her latest, “A Paris Christmas Waltz,” which premiered on GAC on Nov. 19, is a story set during Christmas week in France that follows the growing relationship of competitive dance partners.
The holiday season not only annually features Lilley in a variety of movies, but, since 2020, it’s been a time for her philanthropic side to shine. She’s the founder of “Christmas Is Not Cancelled,” a nonprofit organization that has helped nearly 100,000 children receive holiday gifts.
“My holidays are crazy,” she said. “I’m always making five to seven gingerbreads and having ugly sweater competitions. We’re always doing crazy things that raise money for charity, and we always have a goal of giving 25,000 toys to children all over the U.S. We give bikes, Legos, really cool toys.
Aside from starring in movies during the holiday season, Lilley, through her nonprofit organization, raises money to provide gifts for children. (Contributed photo)
“So my holidays are much more than you can stuff in your stocking. It’s much more than you see in my movies.”
In her festive movie debut, Lifetime’s “The Spirit of Christmas,” Lilley played a lawyer who travels to Vermont to close the sale of a haunted inn and ends up falling for the ghost of the man who mysteriously died there nearly a century earlier.
Lilley said if she were to write a UVA-themed Christmas film, she’d use a similar plot line that taps into the history of a location. She envisions a story around a female journalist tabbed to come to Charlottesville for a piece on Thomas Jefferson.
“It would be a little outside the box,” she said, “but you could be going back and forth from modern to old UVA. You wouldn’t have to change the setting. I think a time travel element around UVA would be really cool because the Grounds are just so beautiful.”
Asked for a hypothetical name for the film, Lilley naturally went with “A Cavalier Christmas.”
