Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17 1978,, December 7, 1978MSNBC "Today in history: November 17" often reported as October 7 1976People magazine bio) is a multiple Teen Choice Award and MTV Movie Award-winning Canadian actress. She is known for her roles in the Hollywood films Mean Girls, The Notebook, Wedding Crashers and Red Eye.

Biography

Early life

McAdams was born in London, Ontario and grew up in nearby St. Thomas. Her father, Lance, is a truck driver, and her mother, Sandra, is a nurse.Rachel McAdams Biography 1976 She has a younger brother, Daniel, and a younger sister, Kayleen. She took up competitive figure skating at the age of four and acting at age twelve at a summer theatre camp in St. Thomas, Ontario named Original Kids. When the company extended to a year-round company (and eventually relocated to London, Ontario), she was invited to continue with them. She attended the Myrtle Street Public SchoolA Peek at Rachel's Third Grade "Notebook" and the publicly-funded secondary school Central Elgin Collegiate Institute in St. Thomas from grade nine to OAC and starred in the Award-winning student production I Live in a Little Town. Later she graduated from York University in Toronto with Honours and a BFA degree in Theatre. During her fourth year at York, she played a child in The Piper – a workshop led by a creative team from Toronto's Necessary Angel Theatre Company. She also attended Original Kids Theatre Company in London, Ontario, as well as David Rotenberg's on-camera acting class in Toronto with fellow actors Scott Speedman, Kenneth Mitchell, Polly Shannon and David Sutcliffe.

Career

McAdams had the titular role in the film The Hot Chick alongside Rob Schneider, but her career really took off when she starred as Regina George, the "queen-bee" in 2004's Mean Girls. McAdams was told to partly model the character of Regina George after Alec Baldwin's performance in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). She was much older than the character she played. McAdams had previously appeared in the Canadian television series Slings and Arrows, alongside Paul Gross. She played a main role in the first season, but due to her rising stardom was written out of the second season, appearing in only the first episode. She followed Mean Girls with the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel The Notebook, alongside Ryan Gosling, with whom she would later begin an off-screen romance.'I live on Skid Row. You can't filter out reality there' | Interviews | Guardian Unlimited Film They broke up in 2007.THE LONER: GQ Features on men.style.comRyan Gosling Consoled Fans After Rachel McAdams Split - Breakups, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling : People.com McAdams and Gosling were seen embracing each other at a restaurant near her Toronto home. OMG! at Yahoo!