Landman Star Kayla Wallace's Stunning Transformation

Anyone who's watched Paramount+ hit "Landman" is certainly familiar with the character Rebecca Falcone. Representing titular landman Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), Rebecca is a cutthroat attorney who takes no prisoners. Her scorched-earth approach has been one of the more enjoyable aspects of the show thanks to the keen writing of series creator Taylor Sheridan, whose manifold hits for the streaming service include "Yellowstone," "The Mayor of Kingstown," and "Tulsa King." That said, much of the credit for the character's popularity lies with the actor who plays her, Kayla Wallace.

For Wallace, her role in "Landman" has been nothing short of a career game changer, given the show's massive popularity and the keen fan reaction to her character in particular. What those viewers may not realize, however, is that her journey to TV success has taken many twists and turns. Read on to find out more about this fascinating star on the rise, and experience the many steps in Kayla Wallace's stunning transformation.

Kayla Wallace was born in 1993 in Victoria, British Columbia. Ever since she was a youngster, Wallace was drawn to the stage, whether it was performing in dance recitals or acting in school plays. "Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted to be involved in the performing arts," Wallace recalled in an interview with My Devotional Thoughts. "I started out dancing, singing, and being involved in musical theatre as a child, but it wasn't until high school that I was introduced to film acting as a career."

That love of the stage led her to attend the Canadian College of Performing Arts after she graduated from high school. "I trained in acting, dancing, and singing six days a week, usually 12 hours a day," she said of the gruelling schedule intended to prepare her for a career in show business. As Wallace explained in an interview with Snowy the Mouse, it was while studying at the college that she decided to position herself as a screen actor. "It was during that year that I geared my focus to acting for film and television," she explained.

Kayla Wallace landed her first screen role in 2014, when she was cast in "Descendants," a Disney Channel movie about the offspring of iconic Disney characters. "This was while I was still living in Victoria, before I had an agent," she recalled when interviewed by My Devotional Thoughts. "I attended an open-call dance audition (my first [professional] audition ever) with a homemade headshot and lots and lots of nerves."

She appeared in a song-and-dance number set to the "Beauty and the Beast" tune "Be Our Guest." While the role was certainly not a large one, working on such a big production was a heady experience for the aspiring young actor. "I remember walking on set for the first day and seeing my name on a little trailer door ... I was over the moon. My own trailer?!" she added. Her biggest takeaway from the experience, however, was the sense of joy she experienced at being able to fulfill her longtime ambition of appearing on-screen, and realizing "Descendants" represented the beginning of this new chapter in her life. "I was so grateful to be doing what I love, what I've dreamed of," she added.

Shortly after graduating from the Canadian College of Performing Arts, Kayla Wallace moved from Victoria to Vancouver to seriously pursue a career as an actor. Nicknamed "Hollywood North" due to the huge array of film and television production taking place in the city, Vancouver proved to be her launching pad. "I started training with different acting studios in Vancouver and I've never looked back!" Wallace told My Devotional Thoughts.

While the opportunities Vancouver presented were many, it's fair to say that Wallace was not an overnight success. One of many actors in the city trying to break into the business, Wallace spent years auditioning for acting jobs and taking on various non-acting gigs to pay the rent. "I worked many jobs along the way to support myself until my career took off ... countless restaurants, teaching musical theater summer camps, and I was even a bank teller for a few years," she told Snowy the Mouse of her early years as an actor.

Wallace, however, was persistent. She wound up landing more acting jobs, including a supporting role in a made-for-TV movie called "Death of a Vegas Showgirl" and a small guest-starring role in an episode of TV series "Ice." As Wallace's list of screen credits grew, even greater success was just around the corner.

While pursuing acting roles in Vancouver, Kayla Wallace's career began to heat up. She was cast as the antagonist in a TV movie, "A Song for Christmas" (also called "A Christmas Solo"), which aired during the 2017 holiday season. "'Christmas Solo' was an awesome project to work on," Wallace told My Devotional Thoughts. "I still hold a special spot in my heart for my character, Melissa. It was really neat to explore the character of the antagonist, but also finding the humanity in the antagonist. Everybody has a story, even the bully."

That same year, she appeared as a guest star on the Vancouver-shot medical drama "The Good Doctor." "Working on 'The Good Doctor' was a great experience," Wallace recalled, remembering that she was initially nervous until the show's cast and crew made her feel welcome. "It was also one of my first experiences on a TV show," she said of what proved to be a seminal learning experience. "I remember trying to soak up everything I was seeing/learning," she added. "The pace is much different than working on a TV movie set."

Part of the untold truth of Hallmark holiday movies is that many of these sappy-yet-addictive TV productions are filmed in Vancouver. Kayla Wallace's first experience with Hallmark came when she was cast in the 2018 rom-com "Once Upon a Prince." "This was my first Hallmark movie! I loved it," she told My Devotional Thoughts. "I had watched some Hallmark Christmas movies before, and I had so much fun being on the set of a Hallmark movie. It's fun to tell a fairy tale-esque story."

A few months later, she was contacted about auditioning for the role of Fiona, a new character set to be introduced in the sixth season of beloved Hallmark Channel series "When Calls the Heart." Wallace excitedly leapt at the opportunity. "It was a whirlwind," she told Snowy the Mouse, revealing she binge-watched several episodes the night before her audition. It didn't take long for producers to make a decision. "I found out later that day that I got the role, had my costume fitting the following day, and my first day of filming the day after!" she recalled.

This marked a major turning point in Wallace's career. At the time, she was still working as a server in a restaurant, having promised herself she'd only give up that gig if she was hired for a recurring role in a TV series. "That was a big milestone for me," she said in a cast Q&A with Edify Films, the distributer for "When Calls the Heart," recalling her resignation from the service industry. "I called my serving job, and basically said, 'Can we talk?' I think everyone knows what that means."

For Kayla Wallace, being cast in Hallmark Channel hit "When Calls the Heart" proved to be a massive career boost, leading to guest-starring roles in such TV series as "The Magicians," and "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist." Even more importantly, it was on the set of "When Calls the Heart" that she met co-star Kevin McGarry. 

As Wallace told People, their eventual romance "wasn't an immediate thing," but developed over time. "It was definitely stretched over many years that we were friends," she explained. In December 2022, McGarry popped the question. The couple shared news of their engagement via Instagram, each posting the same video on their respective accounts in which they share a kiss while Wallace conspicuously shows off her ring. "Forever," read the caption.

It wasn't too long after that the pair quietly tied the knot, with McGarry confirming they'd wed during an appearance at the Hearties Family Reunion fan event in September 2024. "That ring on your finger, I hope it's not a prop," McGarry was asked, according to a video shared on Instagram. "No, it's not a prop," he responded. In a 2025 interview with Swoon, McGarry revealed that he and Wallace had each been so busy with their respective careers that they still hadn't gotten around to their honeymoon. "Getting married was a must, and we got that out of the way," he said. "And now, we'll find some time to do a honeymoon. It'll be fantastic, but we're very busy."

When pondering how the Hallmark Channel became must-watch television, it's clear the secret is love. Romance has proven to be the backbone of the Hallmark Channel, and that is certainly the case in "When Calls the Heart." Kevin McGarry's character, Mountie Nathan Grant, is romantically involved with Elizabeth Thornton, played by Erin Krakow.

McGarry's real-life romance with co-star Kayla Wallace came to the screen when the two starred together in a Hallmark Channel rom-com, 2022's "Feeling Butterflies," with the two joining the ranks of Hallmark movie couples played by real-life lovers. To promote the flick, the pair adorably interviewed each other on "Entertainment Tonight." Among the many questions posed was McGarry's query asking Wallace about the likelihood that they'd work together again. "Very likely ... 100% I will work with Kevin McGarry again," Wallace responded while sporting a huge grin.

That prediction did not take long to come true. The same year "Feeling Butterflies" aired, the sweethearts went on to co-star in another Hallmark production, "My Grown-Up Christmas List." "Believe it or not, there's no clause in my contract that says I only do movies with him — I just enjoy working with the guy," Wallace told MediaVillage of appearing in two back-to-back Hallmark movies with her significant other. "Hallmark is a wonderful part of my life," she added, "and I'm so grateful for everything, and for all the experiences that they've brought my way."

The acting career of Kayla Wallace took another huge step forward when she was cast as hard-nosed lawyer Rebecca Falcone in "Landman." Premiering in November 2024, the show proved to be a monster hit for Paramount+, with Wallace part of a cast of Hollywood heavyweights including Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and Jon Hamm. "It's a dream come true," Wallace said of the role when interviewed by TV Week.

For fans of "When Calls the Heart," however, Wallace's new role proved to be bad news, given her character had to be written out of the Hallmark Channel series' 11th season. "It was definitely a schedule thing that wasn't going to work out," Wallace told People. Despite exiting the series, Wallace explained why "When Calls the Heart" will always be a big part of her story. "My husband's on that show, so it's still very much in my life," she said, admitting she was hopeful of returning to Hope Valley. "It's never a goodbye. It's just always like — can it work out with whatever's going on in my life that year," she said. True to her word, Wallace returned to "When Calls the Heart" to reprise Fiona in 2025.

Interestingly, on Wallace's first day on the "Landman" set, Thornton approached her and revealed that he was a fan of "When Calls the Heart." As he told her, the show had been a favorite of his late mother, and they would often watch it together. "It was really just a nice story, and kind of put me at ease," Wallace told the Vancouver Sun.

When Kayla Wallace auditioned for "Landman," she was angling to play Ainsley Norris, the teenage daughter of Billy Bob Thornton's character (which wound up going to actor Michelle Randolph). Series creator Taylor Sheridan called her, and told her she wasn't getting the part — but then offered her the role of cutthroat attorney Rebecca Falcone. "And I was absolutely floored and in shock in the best way," Wallace told the Vancouver Sun. "And, yeah, I went from 17-year-old, fun daughter of Billy Bob Thornton to this really smart corporate lawyer. And I couldn't have been more pleased."

Wallace made an immediate impression on viewers in Rebecca's first major scene, when she storms into a corporate boardroom and delivers a jaw-dropping speech that blows the other lawyers away. "Rebecca walks into a room full of men who underestimate her," Wallace recalled in an interview with Louisville Public Media. "She's not just holding her ground —she's grabbing the case by the coat and dragging it in her direction."

Looking back at that pivotal scene, Wallace admitted she was initially full of trepidation that she'd be able to pull it off, given she'd never played a lawyer before and the simple fact that Rebecca's prickly persona was light years away from her actual personality. "Finding that confidence and the power, that was something," Wallace told Next. "That's where she thrives. After, the first go, it made it a little bit easier to do that again. But it's so unlike me."

Not only is "Landman" the biggest television production that Kayla Wallace has ever worked on, her role in the series places her in the company of Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and, in the second season, new cast members Sam Elliott and Andy Garcia. Speaking with Next, Wallace recalled experiencing a surreal moment when she was struck with the enormity of the talent of her co-stars. "It was one of those pinch-me moments with these legends just sitting around and chatting in between takes," she said.

Working with such high-caliber actors made Wallace eager to up her own acting game. "I know I'm trying to keep up with Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott and Demi Moore, all of these wonderful talents," she added. "It's just made me want to work even harder." As Wallace told People, she grew to become particularly impressed by the work ethic of octogenarian co-star Elliott. "He never leaves," she marveled, revealing his tendency to grab a seat and watch his co-stars do their stuff. "Even if he's not in a scene, he shows up early to set," Wallace added.

In another interview with People, Wallace admitted that the experiences she's had on "Landman" — and will continue to have as the series progresses — have been life-changing for her. "I was pinching myself the whole way because I mean, this is a dream job," she said. "I feel so lucky to be a part of this project."

In November 2025, shortly before the second season of "Landman" premiered, Kayla Wallace took to Instagram to make a big announcement. "We can't wait to meet you, baby," she wrote in the caption accompanying a photo of her pregnant self with husband Kevin McGarry. "Premiering 2026."

"You know I've been back home in Canada since we wrapped, so I've kind of been like, in hiding essentially," Wallace told People while walking the red carpet at a "Landman" premiere event for the second season. "So my reveal was I put on a tight dress last night and walked into the lobby at the hotel, and people were like, 'What?!' So yeah, they've been so supportive. It's been wonderful." When asked what she was looking forward to most about motherhood, Wallace became emotional. "Oh my gosh, oh my god, you're gonna make me cry," she said. "I'm so excited. I can't wait to meet the baby."

During that premiere, Wallace also spoke to "Entertainment Tonight," sharing her gratitude for where her life's journey had taken her. "Last year was so amazing," she gushed. "I filmed season 1, got married, and now my husband and I are expecting our first baby."