Hallmark’s Trivia at St. Nick’s Filming Locations and Cast Details

Hallmark’s Trivia at St. Nick’s was filmed almost entirely in southeastern Connecticut. Producer Andrew Gernhard and Synthetic Cinema International selected Connecticut College in New London as the primary stand-in for Hampstead University, the fictional Vermont institution at the center of the story. Principal photography ran from early June 2024 through the first week of July 2024, under the working title Trivially True Christmas. The film premiered November 8, 2024 on Hallmark Channel at 8 p.m. Eastern as part of its Countdown to Christmas lineup.

Marlo Hunter directed from a screenplay by Christine Garver and Stephanie Jackson. The story follows an astronomy professor and the football team’s new offensive coordinator who end up on the same team for their school’s annual Christmas Bar Trivia Tournament.

Connecticut College: The Main Filming Location

Connecticut College, at 270 Mohegan Avenue in New London, provided the bulk of the film’s on-screen campus. Gernhard explained the choice in remarks to the college: “The script called for not a Harvard, not a state school, but a nice, established older school… and I heard in passing that people consider Connecticut College a mini Ivy school, from the look of it. It literally fit the script perfectly.” The crew finalized the location within about a week and worked with the Connecticut Film Office to secure permits on a tight schedule.

Because the college was in summer recess, many of the film’s extras were students who had remained on campus, and a campus dormitory served as the production’s on-site office. Several specific buildings appear in the film: the Science Center was dressed to function as an observatory for a key scene between the two leads, while Shain Library, Fanning Hall, the Arboretum, and a log cabin at the edge of campus also appear as distinct locations. Establishing shots of Vermont were sourced separately to reinforce the film’s stated New England setting.

Filming in June and July meant outdoor temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit while the cast wore sweaters, scarves, and winter coats throughout. Gernhard’s deadline for wrapping principal photography was July 4, 2024.

Mystic and Groton

The Blue Horse Children’s Shop at 1 West Main Street in Mystic, about ten miles from New London, appears in the film as a store the main characters visit together. Tammin Sursok, who plays Celeste, wrote about the location on Instagram during production: “I’ve been filming in Mystic, Connecticut, for the last two weeks. I was not prepared for how cute this town is, it wasn’t really on my radar, but it is now one of my favorite small towns.”

Groton is listed as a production location in several summaries, though no specific scenes or addresses from Groton have been confirmed in production materials or interviews. Synthetic Cinema International, headquartered in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, has produced numerous Hallmark and Lifetime movies in the state, making southeastern Connecticut a familiar region for the company’s crews. Gernhard addressed the pattern directly: “Christmas movies have become huge and it’s great that they have a home in Connecticut. And I want to bring more and more here to bring notoriety.”

Cast and Characters

Tammin Sursok plays Celeste, an astronomy professor for whom the Christmas Bar Trivia Tournament is both a personal tradition and a competitive priority. Sursok is an Emmy-nominated, Logie Award-winning actress and singer, known in the US primarily for playing Jenna Marshall on Pretty Little Liars. Brant Daugherty, also a Pretty Little Liars alumnus, plays Max. His character is Hampstead’s new offensive coordinator, drafted onto Celeste’s team after her regular partner leaves for a month-long lecture tour overseas. Daugherty played Noel Kahn in that series, the same show where Sursok appeared as a recurring guest star throughout most of its run, making this their first time leading the same project together.

The supporting cast includes Brian McCarthy as Nick, Bekah Zornosa as Ruby, Ricardo Alzate as Gedeon, and Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone as Bekah. Jennifer Aspen served as executive producer; Molly M. Mayeux and Colin Theys produced alongside Gernhard.

Director Marlo Hunter

Marlo Hunter came to this project from more than two decades in theater, directing and choreographing new plays and musicals at Roundabout, Second Stage, Williamstown, and Playwrights Horizons, among other stages. A Princeton University graduate in English and Dramatic Literature, she was named a “2022 Woman to Watch on Broadway.” Her feature film debut, American Reject (2020), won Best Narrative Feature at the BendFilm Festival. Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone, who plays Bekah in Trivia at St. Nick’s, also wrote and starred in American Reject, making her a continuing collaborator with Hunter across both films.

Connecticut College issued a news bulletin in advance of the November 8 premiere, reflecting how prominently the campus appears on screen. Viewers who know Shain Library or the Arboretum will recognize those spaces by name rather than encounter a generic studio approximation of a university.