Rachel McAdams biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Canadian actress Rachel McAdams was born on November 17, 1978 in London, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Lance, worked as a mover, and her mother, Sandra, worked as a nurse. Together, they raised McAdams and her younger siblings, sister Kayleen and brother Daniel.

McAdams started competitive figure skating at age 4 and discovered acting at age 12, when she viewed a children's theater group performance. "I told my mother that I had to be in it, that I would die if I wasn't," McAdams said in an interview with The New York Times. Her parents fully supported her ambitions, and McAdams joined the Original Kids Theatre in her hometown.

Through high school, McAdams acted in local productions. She went on to study theater at York University in Toronto, where she performed in several stage and student film productions.

In 2001, McAdams landed her first television performance, playing a bulimic girl in the Disney series The Famous Jett Jackson. She made her film debut one year later, in the Canadian/Italian-produced film My Name is Tanino.

McAdams earned her first significant accolade for a supporting role in 2002's Perfect Pie; for her role in the low-budget film, she was nominated for a Genie Award (Canada's Oscar). With her career now gaining momentum, McAdams moved to Los Angeles, where she was cast opposite Rob Schneider in the 2002 comedy The Hot Chick. Later, in an interview with Vogue magazine, she amitted that the movie—her first film in the United States—was a "huge milestone" for her. McAdams returned to Canada soon after, and appeared in the TV series Slings and Arrows (2003), for which she won a Genie Award.

Commercial Success

McAdams played a title role in the hit teen film Mean Girls (2004), written by Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey. Appearing with co-stars Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried, the film opened doors for the budding actress. That same year, she played the lead role in The Notebook (2004), a screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's romance novel. She caught the eye of the public in both films, winning two MTV Movie Awards in 2005 (for breakthrough female (Mean Girls) and best kiss (The Notebook).

In 2005, McAdams appeared in several films that achieved great commercial success, including the comedy Wedding Crashers, the thriller Red Eye and the comedy The Family Stone.

In what many in the industry viewed as an unusual move made at the height of her career, McAdams took a break from 2006 to 2007 to focus on herself.