Tampa’s Daniel Roebuck acts for work. Making faith movies is his passion.

TAMPA — Don’t call Daniel Roebuck’s new gig a job.

His job is to act, and that career keeps him busy.

Roebuck, who splits time between Tampa and Los Angeles, has over 250 credits on his resume, including The Late Shift, Lost and Matlock for TV and Grandpa Munster in The Munsters movie currently being filmed.

Between acting jobs, he and wife Tammy Roebuck formed A Channel of Peace, a nonprofit that makes faith-based movies.

They shot two in Daniel’s native Pennsylvania over the last year. Both movies are in post-production.

“That is not a job,” Daniel Roebuck, 58, said. “It’s our passion.”

Plus, Tammy Roebuck said, laughing, jobs come with paychecks.

Despite Daniel writing, directing, producing and starring, and Tammy producing and editing, they say they have yet to earn one cent through the nonprofit, which raised around $350,000 to make the two films.

“Even when the movies are finished and released, profits will go into making the next one,” Tammy said.

Added Daniel, “I’m not put on this earth to make money. I’m put on this earth to make a difference.”

The couple’s venture into faith-based movies began with Getting Grace.

Released in 2017 and funded in a traditional manner, the film, according to imdb.com, is about a teenage girl who, dying of cancer, “crashes a funeral home to find out what will happen to her after she dies, but ends up teaching awkward funeral director how to celebrate life.”

It’s available through streaming services.

“It became the blueprint for what we wanted to do with A Channel of Peace,” Daniel said. “We want to make TV shows, movies and documentaries that promote a relationship with a higher power.”

That philosophy might surprise fans of Daniel’s roles in horror films Halloween, Halloween 2, The Devil’s Rejects, The Lords of Salem and Phantasm.

“I have played rotten, despicable characters,” he said, laughing. “There are some Christian actors who won’t kiss another woman in a movie. But I see acting as my job. God gave me a talent, and he did not dictate how I should use it. But the movies I make, I want them to make a difference.”

With a name inspired by the hymn Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, the Roebucks launched the nonprofit in March 2020.

Their first film under its umbrella was Lucky Louie.

Shot in September and October 2020, Tammy said, it is about a retired cop who, along with ex-convicts he is rehabilitating through a Bible study class, works to solve a 50-year-old bank robbery mystery.

Next came The Hail Mary made in July and August 2021. Daniel said it is about a nun who helps an angry loner find redemption through creating a football team for the local Catholic school.

“The movies are entertainment first,” he said. “They’re designed for someone to enjoy themselves. We’re not trying to reach someone who already has a relationship with the higher power. We’re making movies for everybody who drives by the church. We’re trying to lead them back to that relationship.”

Daniel said he has another five stories ready to be turned into scripts. Perhaps, he said, one or more will be shot in the Tampa Bay area.

“We’ve love to tell stories in different places,” he said. “If one of those stories works for Tampa Bay, we will (shoot) it there.”

When will the Roebucks start cashing paychecks and turn their passion into a job?

“Someday, maybe, but that’s not what’s important,” Daniel said. “We want to remind the world that we need to work together for a common good.”

To donate

The Roebucks’ nonprofit, A Channel of Peace, accepts donations at achannelofpeace.org.