Rachel McAdams

Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress.

McAdams was born on November 17, 1978, in London, Ontario, Canada, to nurse Sandra ( Gale) and truck driver Lance McAdams.

She grew up in St. Thomas in a Protestant household.

The eldest of three children, she has a younger sister named Kayleen (born 1982), who is a make-up artist, and a younger brother named Daniel who is a personal trainer.

McAdams is of Scottish, English, Irish and Welsh descent.

Her maternal fifth great-grandfather, James Gray, fought as a Loyalist Ranger during the American Revolution and fled to Upper Canada after the Battles of Saratoga.

McAdams began figure skating when she was four, but turned down an opportunity to move to Toronto when she was nine for pair skating training.

She skated competitively until she was 18, winning regional awards.

She has said that skating prepared her for acting by teaching her to be "in tune" with her body.

McAdams attended Myrtle Street Public School and Central Elgin Collegiate Institute.

She said that she did not enjoy academic work and often pretended to be sick to avoid going to school.

Nonetheless, she was active in student life.

In addition to playing sports (including volleyball, badminton, and soccer), she was on the student council, participated in the Crime Stoppers program, and was a member of the Peer Helping Team.

She worked at a McDonald's restaurant during summer holidays for three years.

She developed an interest in performing when she was seven, and while her parents did not discourage her, they did not "go out and find me an agent."

She attended Disney and William Shakespeare summer camps as a child.

From age 12, she participated in Original Kids Theatre Company, London productions, and in her late teens directed children's theatre productions.

She was also involved in school stage productions, and won a performance award at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival.

She was inspired by two of her teachers, who taught her English and drama, respectively, in grades 11 and 12.

She intended to take cultural studies at the University of Western Ontario before being persuaded by her drama teacher that a professional acting career was a viable option.

After graduating from a theatre degree program at York University in 2001, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film Perfect Pie (2002), for which she received a Genie Award nomination, the comedy film My Name Is Tanino (2002), and the comedy series Slings & Arrows (2003–2005), for which she won a Gemini Award.

She enrolled in York University's four-year theatre program and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts honours degree in 2001.

While there, she worked with the Toronto-based Necessary Angel Theatre Company.

In 2001, McAdams made her television debut in the MTV pilot Shotgun Love Dolls as Beth Swanson, which was filmed during spring break from York University.

She also made her Canadian film debut that year in the comedy My Name is Tanino.

The Italian-Canadian co-production was filmed in Sicily when McAdams was 22 years old, and it marked her first time on an airplane.

McAdams later earned a Genie Award nomination in Canada for her role in the drama Perfect Pie.

In 2002, she made her Hollywood film debut in the comedy The Hot Chick.

In 2002, she made her Hollywood film debut with Rob Schneider and Anna Faris in the comedy The Hot Chick, which McAdams has described as a "huge milestone" in her career.

She played a catty high school student who Swaps bodies with Schneider's character, a small-time criminal.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times felt she "emerges as a young actress of much promise".

Afterwards, McAdams returned to Canada to star as Kate McNab in Slings and Arrows, a comedy mini-series about backstage theatre life at the fictional New Burbage Shakespearean Festival.

She rose to fame in 2004 with the comedy Mean Girls and the romantic drama The Notebook.

In 2005, she starred in the romantic comedy Wedding Crashers, the psychological thriller Red Eye, and the comedy-drama The Family Stone.

She was hailed by the media as Hollywood's new "it girl", and received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Rising Star.

After a brief sabbatical, she returned to prominence in 2009 by appearing in the political thriller State of Play, the romance The Time Traveler's Wife, and the mystery film Sherlock Holmes.

In 2010, she appeared in the star vehicle comedy film Morning Glory, and starred in Midnight in Paris (2011), The Vow (2012), and About Time (2013).

In 2015, she starred in the second season of the HBO anthology crime drama series True Detective, and portrayed journalist Sacha Pfeiffer in the drama Spotlight.

For the latter, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

This was followed by roles in the superhero film Doctor Strange (2016) and its sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), the romantic drama Disobedience (2017), the comedies Game Night (2018) and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), and the comedy-drama Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023).