Rachel McAdams captured the attention of Hollywood, literally overnight. On her first trip to Los Angeles from her native Toronto, she landed the starring role in a major studio comedy, The Hot Chick, in which she played a popular and self-absorbed cheerleader who wakes up one day to find that she has switched bodies with a man in his thirties (Rob Schneider). Prior to her arrival in Los Angeles, the talented young actress starred in Perfect Pie, for which she was nominated for a Genie Award (Canada's equivalent of an Academy Award). It is a feature film based on the play by acclaimed Canadian playwright Judith Thompson and directed by Barbara Willis Sweete (Yo-Yo Ma Inspired by Bach) and is the story of two friends pulled apart by tragedy as teens who, years later, must come to terms with the past.

McAdams' other credits include the acclaimed coming-of-age drama My Name Is Tanino, directed by award-winning filmmaker Paolo Virzi and produced by Cecchi Gore Groupe Internationale. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2002.

McAdams was raised in a small town near London, Ontario. At the age of four, she took up figure skating and skated competitively throughout high school. She always knew she wanted to be an actress, and when a summer theater camp finally opened nearby, she was performing in productions of Shakespeare at the age of 13.

McAdams went on to York University, appearing in numerous student films and stage productions, where she graduated with honors with a B.F.A. degree in theater, which remains her first love. She landed her first professional on-screen role as a girl with bulimia in the Disney series The Famous Jett Jackson, and followed with a pilot for MTV.