As good as it gets

With a beefed-up role on DAYS and a new baby at home, Remington Hoffman is living his best life

- Janet Di Lauro

There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the current state of Remington Hoffman’s life. On the work front, he’s seen his DAYS character, Li Shin, catapult to the storyline forefront. Plus, there’s his roles in Tyler Perry’s BET+ dramatic comedy ZATIMA, and in the Snapchat series BREAKWATER. And he and his brother, Forrest, are co-creators of the Amazon Prime documentary series TALKIN’ SUCCESS (recently rebranded as DRIVEN). On the personal front, he and his wife, actress Ida Barklund, just welcomed their first child, daughter Una Bay Hoffman, on June 29.

“I’m really fortunate and grateful,” says Hoffman, who’s reveling in all of it. Originally cast on the DAYS app miniseries, CHAD & ABBY IN PARIS, Hoffman segued over to the NBC soap as an occasional guest in 2020 before his recent promotion to leading man. “Last December I shot a show where Li kissed Gabi, and they had sex. I was like, ‘This is great.’ I had been telling my wife and my brother that I hoped they would give Li a love interest because he could only do so much just being a board member of DiMera. When Li finally made the move for Gabi, I was like, ‘This is so exciting.’ ”

Hoffman wondered what the new year would bring. It turned out to be lots more screen time. “[DAYS] called my manager in February and said, ‘We want to give Li at least 12 episodes.’ Then 12 episodes turned into 15 episodes, and they just kept sending me episodes. Marnie [Saitta, casting director] and Albert [Alarr, co-executive producer] told me the show was going to expand Li’s role, that he was going to be featured a lot more. It’s just been the most incredible blessing.”