Peterborough screenwriter Carley Smale continues to find success writing holiday-themed movies, with her latest project A Gingerbread Christmas now streaming on Crave after premiering on Discovery+ in November.
Written by Carley with Blaine Chiappetta based on a story by Carley and Katelyn James (co-executive director of One City Peterborough where Carley used to work), A Gingerbread Christmas tells the story of aspiring architect Hazel Stanley (Tiya Sircar), who goes home to Chicago for the holidays dejected after being passed over for a job at the top New York City architecture firm where she worked as an intern.
After returning home, she discovers local contractor James Meadows (Marc Bendavid) has been helping her father Ted (Sugith Varughese) with the family bakery, which has been in decline since Hazel’s prize-winning baker mother passed away, by not only renovating but by baking as well.
To complete against the new trendy bakery across the street owned by Hazel’s once-best-friend-turned-bitter-rival Shelby (Kyana Teresa), Hezel and James pool their their talents to craft a gingerbread design for a baking contest run by Chicago’s “Cookie King” Mark Clemmons (the Food Network’s Duff Goldman) with a grand prize of $100,000. However, the duo’s competition is fierce, including from Shelby, and unforeseen complications threaten to crumble not only their brilliant design but also their budding romance.
“When I read the script, I liked the way the love story develops between Hazel and James,” says director Pat Kiely. “They are doing okay in life individually, but something really wonderful is formed when they team up. We also have a very diverse cast, and it made me very happy to direct something that will hopefully connect to many different people.”
An avid writer and movie fan as a youth described as a “rom-com connoisseur,” Carley was born and raised in Peterborough. The Crestwood Secondary School graduate moved to Toronto to attend Humber College where she studied film and media. While in college, she interned with a production company that made TV movies.
“I started writing movie treatments for various networks like the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and Nickelodeon,” Carley told kawarthaNOW in 2017. “Eventually a Christmas idea of mine sold and I became the director of development for all the Christmas content.”
At 24 years old, Carley’s first produced screenplay, The Christmas Parade, premiered on the Hallmark Channel with high ratings in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She also wrote and directed her first feature film in 2014 entitled Cold Season, which won Best No-Budget Feature at the 2015 Toronto Independent Film Festival. The movie went on to have international premieres in both New York City and Berlin with high praise.
In December 2015, her original story concept entitled On the 12th Day of Christmas premiered on the Hallmark Channel and was the #1 TV movie of the weekend, with 5.4 million viewers.
In 2015, Carley decided to strike out on her own and pursue writing full time. In December 2017, her screenplay for the comedy-drama Snowed-Inn Christmas premiered on Lifetime.
That was followed by Christmas Pen Pals in 2018, No Time Like Christmas (with Anita Hughes) in 2019, and both Christmas Unwrapped (as a story consultant with writer Gary Hardwick) and Let’s Meet Again on Christmas Eve in 2020.
In addition to her holiday movies, in 2020 Carley wrote the Lifetime movie His Fatal Fixation and the romantic comedy Midnight at the Magnolia.
Midnight at the Magnolia was nominated for Best TV Movie at the Canadian Screen Awards in February 2022 and spent over a month trending worldwide on the Netflix’s U.S. top-10 list. The movie is now available for streaming on Netflix in Canada.
