Canadian actress Rachel McAdams was born on November 17,
1978 in London, Ontario. Rachel’s parents Lance and Sandra encouraged her
talent in performing arts at an early age when she started figure skating at 4, and later acting at 12.  Throughout her
education Rachel starred in numerous student productions before ultimately earning
her BFA in Theater at York University in 2001.

Although Rachel’s first major casting was her lead role in
the Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows,
she is best known for her breakout roles in Mean
Girls (2004), and Wedding Crashers
(2005).  Since then Rachel has starred in
a variety of  films such as Red Eye (2005), Family Stone (2005), State
of Play (2005), The Time Traveler’s
Wife (2009), and most recently her lead role as Irene Adler in Sherlock Holmes (2009).  Rachel McAdams has been involved in several
upcoming projects including Woody Allen’s Midnight
in Paris, expected to be released in December of 2011. To date Rachel’s
most popular film was Wedding Crashers,
which has grossed over 283 million dollars in revenue.

Throughout her career Rachel has received several nominations
and awards for her performances.  In 2005
she received three wins and five nominations at the MTV Movie Awards for her
work in The Notebook, and in 2009 won
the Female Star of the Year Award from ShoWest. 
Rachel has dated a few of her co-stars including Ryan Gosing from The Notebook (who she was once engaged
to), and more recently Michael Sheen from Midnight
in Paris.