Adrienne Kress

Biographie

Adrienne Kress is a writer and actress born and raised in Toronto, Canada. It was only natural that Adrienne, the daughter of two high school English teachers, should fall in love with both creating and performing the written word.

She majored in Drama at the age of 11 at the Claude Watson School for the Arts, and continued to follow this path through post-secondary school, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Toronto with an honours BA in theatre. She then moved to London England to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and stayed for three years, acting in a variety of productions. Upon her return to Canada, she joined the Tempest Theatre Group, a Shakespearean theatre company, and continued to produce and direct her own work.

Running parallel to her passion for acting was always her passion for writing. In high school, she won the Gordon C Johnson award for her work, and in university she studied with top Canadian playwright Djanet Sears. The play she wrote as a result of that experience, A Weekend in the Country, was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004 and in Toronto at the Summerworks Theatre Festival in 2007, to excellent reviews and sold out houses.

Inspired by a trip to the town of Bath, Adrienne wrote Alex and the Ironic Gentleman while living in London, England. Although her first book, Alex, was snapped up almost immediately by publishers around the world – UK/Commonwealth, USA, Italy, Romania, France, Greece, Belgium, Indonesia and Germany – where the translated version of her title reads as Die halsüberkopfundkragendramatischabenteuerliche Katastrophenexpedition der Alex Morningside. Seriously. It was also featured in the New York Post as a "Post Potter Pick," as well as on the CBS Early Show, and won the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award in the UK and was nominated for the Red Cedar in Canada.

The sequel to the book, Timothy and the Dragon's Gate, has also been picked up by publishers around the world and was released in the United States, Canada and the UK and Commonwealth in early 2009. It was nominated for the Audie (USA) and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award (Canada). It was also recently optioned for film.

She also contributed to two anthologies in 2011: the Steampunk YA Romance short story anthology Corsets & Clockwork (Running Press Kids), and The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games (Smart Pop), an essay anthology.

Her YA debut, The Friday Society, will be released by Dial in 2012.

Adrienne is presently living in Toronto where she is continuing her writing, acting and directing careers.