Adelaide Clemens

Adelaide Clemens (born 30 November 1989) is an Australian actress. On television, she has played Harper on the W series Love My Way, Valentine on the BBC/HBO series Parade's End (2012), Tawney on the Sundance TV series Rectify (2013–2016), and Blake on the CBS series Tommy (2020). In film, she has played Xandrie in Wasted on the Young (2010), Ladybird in Vampire (2011), Heather / Sharon in Silent Hill: Revelation (2012), Catherine in The Great Gatsby (2013), Hazel in To the Stars (2019), and Carey in The Swearing Jar (2022).

Early life and education Adelaide Clemens was born in Brisbane, Queensland. Her parents lived in Japan but travelled to Australia for her birth. She and her family returned to Japan shortly thereafter. She has two younger brothers, Sebastian and Felix. Her father, Mark Clemens, is English and was a marketing manager for Seagram. Her mother, Janea Clemens, is an Australian cardiac nurse.

After living in Japan, she was raised in France until the age of six, and then Hong Kong to the age of 12, where she attended the Hong Kong International School. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to Australia to live in Sydney, New South Wales. She attended high school at the Queenwood School for Girls, in the Sydney suburb of Balmoral.

Career Clemens began working as an actress in Australian television while in high school. She guest-starred in a 2006 episode of Blue Water High as Juliet, and, in 2007, starred in the children's series Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji, as Alison. Clemens played Harper in the Showtime drama Love My Way that year, and was nominated for the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent at the 2008 Logie Awards for the role.

Clemens was seen in the MTV Networks Australia dramatic film, Dream Life (2008), and had small roles in the television series All Saints and the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in 2009. She became the face of Jan Logan Jewellery that year. Clemens relocated to Los Angeles, California, in 2009.

She starred in the film Wasted on the Young (2010) as Xandrie. Written and directed by Ben C. Lucas, the film tells the story of a high school love triangle that leads to a party ending in gun violence. She guest-starred on the Fox crime drama, Lie To Me, and starred as a sociopathic prostitute in the film Generation Um... (2010). in January 2010, she was briefly considered for a part in Mad Max: Fury Road, but did not appear in the film.

The following year, she starred in the film Certainty (2011), directed by Peter Askin. She also starred in Vampire (2011) as Ladybird, a suicidal single mother. The film was the English-language feature debut of noted Japanese director Shunji Iwai.

The next year, Clemens starred in Camilla Dickinson (2012), an adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's 1951 novel. She starred as teenager Heather Mason in the horror film Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012). Also that year, Clemens played a lead role as the young suffragette Valentine Wannop in Parade's End (2012), a television mini-series adaptation of the Ford Madox Ford tetralogy co-produced by HBO and BBC Two. She also appeared in the horror film No One Lives (2012).

The following year, she appeared in The Great Gatsby (2013), based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of the same name, playing Catherine, the sister of Myrtle Wilson. On television, Clemens began starring as Tawney Talbot in the 2013 Sundance Channel series, Rectify.

In 2017, she starred in Rabbit, supernatural horror film, written and directed by Luke Shanahan and produced by David Ngo.

In 2020, Clemens took a starring role in the CBS drama Tommy.

Filmography

Film

Television Year Title Role Notes 2006 Blue Water High Juliet Episode: "2.5" 2007 Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji Alison Main role Love My Way Harper Recurring role; 8 episodes 2008 Out of the Blue Fiona Episode: "1.37" Dream Life Rose Television film 2009 All Saints Stephanie Episode: "Give and Take 2" 2010 Registrar Girl Episode: "Home" Lie to Me Megan Cross Episode: "The Royal We" 2012 Parade's End Valentine Wannop Miniseries; main role 2013–2016 Rectify Tawney Talbot Main role 2014 Parer's War Elizabeth Marie Cotter Television film 2018 Voltron: Legendary Defender Merla (voice) Main role (season 8) 2020 Tommy Blake Main role 2022 Under the Banner of Heaven Rebecca Pyre Miniseries; main role 2023 Justified: City Primeval Sandy2026–present R.J. Decker Catherine Delacroix Main cast

Stage Year Title Role Theater 2016 Hold On to Me Darling Essie Atlantic Theater Company 2018 The Hard Problem Hilary Lincoln Center 2024 Hold On to Me Darling Essie Lucille Lortel Theatre

Awards and nominations Award Year Category Nominated work Result Logie Awards 2008 Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent Love My Way