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Rachel Nichols is an American actress and model, famous for her roles as Tamara in “Conan the Barbarian,” and as Kiera Cameron in the television series “Continuum.” Here are 50 interesting facts about Rachel -
- Rachel Emily Nichols was born on January 8, 1980 in Augusta, Maine, to James Nichols, a school teacher and Alison Nichols.
- She is of English, Scotch-Irish, German, Italian and French-Canadian descent.
- She went to Cony High School in her childhood and refers to herself as “not the so-hot chick in high school.” During her study at Cony High School, she took part in high jump.
- She graduated in 1998 and enrolled in Columbia University in New York. She wanted to be a Wall Street Analyst.
- Rachel started her modeling career while studying in Columbia University.
- She was approached by a modeling agent during her lunch and invited her to work in Paris. In fact, she paid her tuition fee only with the proceeds from her modeling work.
- Her commercial work includes advertising campaigns for ‘Abercrombie & Fitch,’ ‘Guess?’ and ‘L’Oreal.’
- According to Rachel, her modeling career was purely accidental, more like “She was present at a right place in the right time.”
- In 2000 she had a small part to play as a model in the movie “Autumn in New York.”
- She completed graduation from Columbia University in 2003 with double major in Economics and Maths.
- Her campaign for ‘Guess?’ propelled her stardom in the Fashion Industry, yet she is finding her foot in the acting career.
- The first role she auditioned for was as the restaurant hostess on “Sex and the City,” which her modeling agent helped her get it, in the year 2002.
- She later said that she enjoyed filming on her first day, and had such fun on set, that made her want to pursue acting career more seriously.
- The next year, she landed her first major film was “Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd” in which she played the role as a student newspaper reporter.
- She considers it as a learning experience as once said “I was a sponge for the entire time I was in Atlanta [during filming] and freely admitted that I had no idea what was going on. I had never done a big film before, I had never been the lead in a film before and any advice anyone wanted to give me, I was more than willing to take.”
- In 2004, she was cast as one of the member of a high school debate team in the independent film “Debating Robert Lee.”
- The same year, she had a two-episode role in the crime drama television series “Line of Fire,” which was cancelled after 11 out of 13 episodes.
- After this, she was casted in a number of movies for supporting roles, including the horror films “The Amityville Horror” (2005) and “The Woods” (2006).
- In the movie “The Amityville Horror,” she played the role of Lisa - a baby-sitter of George Lutz (Ryan Reynolds) and Kathy Lutz (Melissa George).
- She received two nominations for her performance in the movie for – Best Frightened Performance Award by MTV Movie Award and Choice Movie Scream Scene by Teen Choice Award.
- In the closet scene in “The Amityville Horror,” Rachel had to bang her hands on a door, which was made of rubber initially. However, the production crew decided to use a real wooden door, later. So, Rachel had to bang her hands on the door for two straight days.
- She is so frightened of dogs that she almost did not audition for the movie as Producer Michael Bay had three dogs in his office.
- She said “Michael Bay has these gigantic [dogs]. And, when I went to audition for The Amityville Horror, I went into his offices and literally these three huge dogs were there, and I almost turned around. I was like, 'No, I'm not going to read for this film.' I actually used the dogs in my audition to think of what would scare me the most."
- Her next movie was “the Woods,” which was delayed for 18 months and released in 2006. The film received good reviews and the performances of every actor, including her, was appreciated by much.
- In 2004, she was cast in the lead role as Special Agent Rebecca Locke in a TV series – “The Inside.” The series premiered in June 2005, was eventually dropped due to low ratings for 6 of the total 13 episodes.
- Initially, her character was reported to be a “DEA agent who goes undercover at a high school.” But with the change in the executive producer and showrunner in late September 2004, her character was changed to be a FBI agent assigned to the FBI's Los Angeles Violent Crimes Unit.
- She also landed a role on the fifth season of the serial action series Alias in 2005, as Rachel Gibson, a computer expert who believes she was working for the CIA, but was actually working for the most dangerous terrorist organization.
- This situation was very similar to that of series’ lead Jennifer Garner in the first season. Rachel has multiple fight sequences in this role and worked with Jennifer Garner’s personal trainer.
- Speaking about working on Alias, she said "to say it's the nicest set on the planet is an understatement," adding that she "already knew that [Garner's] job was extremely hard. But I didn't know how difficult it was until I started training for just one fight."
- According to the story, Rachel was to replace Garner as the lead, due to Jennifer Garner’s pregnancy. However, it didn’t work out, and the show’s fifth season was made the final.
- "I think everybody knew that the show wouldn't work without Jennifer," Rachel said, "But still, they were grooming me, so it was heartbreaking when it happened."
- In the year 2007, she starred in another horror thriller movie “P2,” playing the role of a business woman, Angela, being trapped in a public garage by a deranged security guard.
- The entire movie was shot in just 2 months, exclusive at night, at a real working Toronto parking garage. The Angela character is stated to hail from Maine, which is also where Rachel Nichols is from.
- In the movie, the character she played has to wear a small night gown with no bra or underwear. This was against the rules stated by Rachel in her contract. Hence, a bra was sewn into the "Marilyn Monroe dress" she wore in the film.
- About the dress her character wears for much of the film, Nichols said, "When I read the script originally, it wasn't a dress, it was a small nightgown with no bra or underwear. Then I read the first scene where she gets wet, and I went: 'OK, this has got to be altered!'"
- On July 26, 2008, Rachel married film producer Scott Stuber in Aspen, Colorado. The duo was working on building a home in Cabo San Lucas shortly after their honeymoon.
- She was cast in “Star Trek” in November 2007, but initially her character name was kept a secret even to her.
- She was first rumored to play the character of Janice Rand, but actually played the role of Cadet Gaila, a red-headed Orion woman at Starfleet Academy, who is Cadet Uhura's roommate.
- In 2009, she played the role of Shana "Scarlett" O'Hara in the “G.I. Joe” franchise movie “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.”
- She had accepted the role without even reading the script. From the training in martial arts for action sequence, due to which she gained 15 pounds of muscle.
- During a fight scene with Sienna Miller, she got burned by a flame, while miller sprained her wrists.
- In February 2009, she and Stuber announced that they had separated due to irreconcilable differences.
- She landed the lead role in the horror thriller movie “For Sale by Owner” as Anna Farrier. She also starred in the 2010 independent crime drama film Meskada, as Leslie Spencer.
- In the period 2010-2011, she played the role of Special Agent Ashley Seaver, in the television series – “Criminal Minds.”
- Her next major project was “Conan the Barbarian,” in which she played the character of Tamara, a master of martial arts, a priestess, and also the potential Conan's love interest. The film was a huge box office bomb in the year 2011.
- She had a body double for her sex scene with her co-star Jason Momoa. Talking about her first sex scene in a movie, she said “They were nice enough to shoot the scene at the end of filming, so by then Jason and I had become friends. But it still is awkward, especially when you have the director saying, "Grab her neck and bite her."
- Rachel is currently starring as Kiera Cameron in a Canadian television series “Continuum,” that revolves around a police officer who time travels to find a group of rebels. The series is successfully in the fourth season airing from 2012 till present.
- She received her individual acting honor from the Constellation Awards for Best Female Performance in a 2012 Science Fiction Television Episode, for her performance in the TV series.
- On December 30, 2013, she got engaged to Michael Kershaw, a real estate developer. The duo got married in September 2014.
- Rachel has an upcoming sci-fi thriller “Pandemic” slated for a release this year. She is playing the role of Lauren, alongside Missi Pyle, Alfie Allen and Mekhi Phifer.
