Hallmark movies seem to be on everyone's television screen around the holidays. Feel-good movies for the season of joy. What's really cool about Hallmark movies though is that an Iowan was behind some of them.

According to The Gazette, 55-year-old Rick Garman is a Marion native that has written more than 20 movies for the Hallmark Channel, and even some for Lifetime and PixL. What's even cooler about Garman is that he's not what you'd expect. If you were envisioning a jolly, sweater-vest-wearing bookworm, he's quite the opposite. Garman is a slender man with a shaved head and a sleeve of tribal tattoos on his left arm. Pretty cool!

The Gazette reports that Garman graduated from Linn-Mar High School in 1984 and started writing plays in his 20s. His first piece was a drama titled “17 Days.” It debuted at a theater in Los Angeles in 1993 and "was produced at Theatre Cedar Rapids in January 1995." Despite his efforts over the years, his career didn't just take off. He just recently has seen success. He was able to quit odd jobs and work full-time as a writer at the age of 50.

His first Hallmark film was titled "Christmas in Homestead." It was based on a TV script he titled “Homestead,” set in Iowa. Garman confessed that he didn't even know there was a Homestead in Iowa when he wrote the piece. The TV script never got made and the Hallmark version debuted in November of 2016. Since then, he's created several films for the Hallmark Channel, as he loves telling stories. Especially when those stories can make people happy.

It's nice to have this two hours of comfort. And the fact that I can be a part of that, the fact that I've written things that have made literally millions of people happy, how many people get to say that?-Garman told the Gazette.

Keep making us Iowans happy, and proud, Rick! We can't wait to see what you come up with next. You can read more about Garman's career and life in the Gazette article here.

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