BREAKING NEWS: Ryan Paevey To Return In September For “Meaty” Storyline Per Deadline, the actor begins filming his return this week.

Ryan Paevey Announces Return to General Hospital 1 Year After Taking a ‘Step Back from Acting’ — but Is Nathan West Back?

Paevey, who starred on the show as Nathan West from 2013 to 2018, said the character he’s playing is being kept under wraps for now

Ryan Paevey at a screening of Hallmark’s ‘Unthinkably Good Things’ on Aug. 10, 2022 in Pasadena, California.Credit : Michael Tullberg/Getty

The 40-year-old actor is coming home to General Hospital in September, PEOPLE has learned. Deadline was the first to report the news.

Paevey joined the soap in 2013 as Nathan West and left the show in 2018, with his character, the love interest of Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms), being killed off at the time.

There’s no word on who he’ll be playing when fans see him back on their screens later this year.

Ryan Paevey and Kirsten Storms on ‘General Hospital’.Christopher Polk/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Paevey told Deadline that his return started with a surprise text from Frank Valentini, the executive producer for General Hospital.

The actor said Valentini “floated different story ideas involving different time commitments of me” when discussing possible ways to bring him back.

“I thought if we’re going to do this we should really do it and surprise the fans with a meaty storyline,” he teased. “I was surprised by my excitement for a homecoming and reuniting with familiar faces after seven years.”

Emphasizing how much his time on the show meant to him, Paevey added, “I still have my last call sheet from my final taping day … tacked up in my home office.”

In addition to his role as Nathan West on General Hospital, Paevey has made a name for himself in various TV movies.

As his star was rising in the soap opera world, Paevey began starring in a slew of Hallmark Channel movies, beginning with 2016’s Unleashing Mr. Darcy. He returned for the 2018 sequel, Marrying Mr. Darcy.

In addition to a Lifetime movie, 2017’s Locked In, he appeared in multiple Hallmark films each year through 2023.

Ryan Paevey attends a screening of Hallmark Channel’s ‘A Holiday Spectacular’ at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Oct. 20, 2022.Noam Galai/Getty

Paevey announced in 2024 that he was “taking a step back from acting.”

At the time, he said this was a decision he “felt I’ve needed to do for a while now” and noted that the industry had taken a toll on his mental health over the years.

“It’s taken me to a bit of a dark place, made me into a version of myself I don’t like very much,” he explained.

Paevey also shared that he had left Los Angeles to “be closer” to his mother, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer, in order to “devote more of my time, energy, and resources closer to home.”

Though he said he was “grateful” to both General Hospital and the Hallmark Channel for “changing my life and taking me to places that have become my favorite on Earth,” he was “simply shifting focus closer; to family.”