Maria Ricossa

Maria Ricossa is the kind of name that shows up in the supporting cast, never the top line, and that is exactly the job she has done well for Hallmark since 2003. Across her seven films she is a character player, not the lead, and most of them follow the same comfortable shape: winter, a small town, and Christmas waiting at the end. Five of the seven are holiday titles. Her best-reviewed is The Note from 2007 at 6.7, with A Shoe Addict's Christmas close behind at 6.5 and Finding John Christmas from her debut year at 6.3. She plays these straight, no winking at the strangeness, which suits the warm and tidy world she keeps turning up in. No single co-star follows her from picture to picture, so think of her less as half of a pairing and more as a steady face you are glad to see again.