Adelaide Kane’s career is rooted in fantasy and extravagance. From her reoccurring role on MTV’s Teen Wolf to The CW’s royal drama Reign, much of Adelaide’s screen time has been shared with supernatural creatures or regal family members – both of which remain true for her latest role on ABC’s Once Upon a Time. But off camera, Adelaide is grounded with a strong sense of reality as a result of years of hard work and an acute understanding of the world around her. Adelaide was born in Perth, Australia and grew up a frequent traveler, often accompanying her dad on business trips to places like Japan, Norway and the Middle East. Self-described as “an extremely hyper kid”, it was recommended to Adelaide’s parents that they enroll her in acting classes to 40
channel her energy, which resulted in her doing commercial and background work in her hometown. “Then I hit puberty with vengeance,” she jokes. Once she got through her awkward, acne-clad years, she opted to give it another go. She ended up on a famous Australian soap opera titled Neighbours, which re-launched her career. She worked on Neighbours for six months and then a role on Disney’s Power Rangers R.P.M. brought her to America for the first time. The job helped her secure a visa and she officially relocated to Los Angeles when she was 19. “Everyone always says, ‘Such and such is an overnight success!’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not how that works’,” she laughs, “I’ve been working since I was 16 and it took me a good three years of
doing the odd horror movie or occasional web series to really gain some traction.” Three years into her hustle in L.A., she was feeling frustrated and went back home to Australia. She was experiencing “crazy migraines” and had a nervous breakdown, and was struggling to make rent even while working three jobs on top of auditioning. She decided to give her self one more pilot season and if at the end of the three months she didn’t book anything, she was going to go home. Needless to say, Adelaide never moved back home. She ended up booking and filming three movies that year: The Purge, The Devil’s Hand and Louder Than Words, and at the end of the year booked Teen Wolf. “While I was on Teen Wolf I booked Reign and the rest is, as they say, history,” she says,
