Falling In Love is Crystal Allen’s dream come true.

From dancing, to commercial acting — you know her as the Tic Tac girl — to guest parts on Sex And The City and the Sopranos, Camrose-raised Allen has hit the big time with her first starring role in Hallmark’s Falling In Love With The Girl Next Door.

“It’s a romantic comedy about this girl who comes back to Catalina Island and falls in love with the boy next door,” Allen says from her part-time home in Los Angeles.

“It was amazing to get this part,” she adds. “I couldn’t believe it — it just sounded too good to be true.”

It wasn’t.

When she realized she had won the starring role after auditioning with well-known actresses, panic set in.

“I was intimidated and worried,” she says. As she got into filming, though, she says everything fell into place.

“I’m in almost every scene, so the biggest challenge was memorizing all the lines, so I just tried to be available and open so if there were any changes I could just embrace them.”

Working with accomplished actors Patrick Duffy, Shelley Long, and Oscar-winner Patty Duke was also daunting.

“I was scared at first,” Allen admits, “but doing a scene with them made it so much easier, and Ken Marino (playing her boyfriend) too. It was well cast and there was so much talent I didn’t do much. It just flowed.”

Allen thinks audiences will pick up on that.

“People will like the movie because it’s about falling in love and it’s about family,” she says, adding it’s something all Canadians can relate to.

And if Allen has it her way, people will relate to her as well.

Her ultimate goal is to be a household name across North America, and not just her “second home” of Calgary.

Falling In Love With The Girl Next Door premieres tonight on the Hallmark channel.