Ada Nicodemou on her new life and how role on Home and Away saved her
She’s just clocked up 20 years on Home and Away and has found new love after heartache. Ada Nicodemou tells how her role on the hit soap helped her through the darkest times in her life.
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Ada Nicodemou has been a resident of Summer Bay for so long she almost doesn’t remember what life was like before she started on the popular Australian soap.
The 41-year-old actress, who plays Leah in the long-running series, started filming on set 20 years ago this year.
So much has happened in her life over those two decades, but the years flew by and she says her career milestone took her by surprise.
“It’s odd, I sort of don’t remember my life before being on the show but then it doesn’t feel like it’s been 20 years this year,” she tells News Corp Australia.
“I was 22 when I started on this show. I was a single woman, I’ve gone through so much in that time and have changed so much as a person,” she says, adding: “I don’t know if I would have been able to get through it all if it wasn’t for this fantastic job.”
Nicodemou made peace seeing her private life playing out in public at times — even in the most harrowing of circumstances.
In 2014, the TV favourite and her then-husband Chrys announced their second son, Harrison had tragically been stillborn.
The following year the couple would split after a nine-year marriage.
Nicodemou credits her work and Home and Away ‘family’ with helping her get through those tough couple of years.
“I just couldn’t wait to get back and it just saved me. I just needed to be busy,” she says. “To be able to have something to come back to was just all I needed and I had this beautiful family here who supported me and loved me.”
She has found happiness away from the small screen with web millionaire Adam Rigby, news which has proved perfect fodder for wedding speculation in gossip magazines.
The romance with Rigby - who founded the online community Nabo, after making his fortune with web company, Jump On It - began in 2016; with the couple sparking a flurry of headlines when they appeared together for the first time at last year’s Logie awards.
While Nicodemou has always known to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the reporting of her relationships, ever her own mum hasn’t been too sure in the past.
“My mum will ring up and be like ‘well you didn’t tell me you were getting married!’ and I’m like ‘what? Mum, I think if I was getting married, you would be the first person to know,” she laughs.
“That’s happened quite a few times as well ... she’s even called me up and asked me if I was pregnant, ” the single mum to son Johnas says.
If her Instagram posts on the six-year-old are any indication, he has inherited his mother’s dramatic skills - turning homework time, in particular, into quite a performance.
She started young, auditioning for Heartbreak High at 16 — playing dance enthusiast, Katerina.
She credits the 1994 series — which also helped make a name for actors such as Callan Mulvey, Salvatore Coco and Scott Major — with teaching her everything she knows about the craft of acting.
“Everything I know today I feel I learnt on Heartbreak High in those three years that I was there,” she says.
She moved on to 1998 soap, Breakers but when it was axed after two seasons, one of the writers found work on Home and Away and asked her if they could write her into the show.
Having wrapped up a two-season stint on the Bondi Beach-based Breakers — and not overly enjoying the experience — Nicodemou wasn’t keen on more of the same.
“I think I only agreed to a year because I’d just come off a soap and it wasn’t the best experience ... and now I’ve been here for 20 years,” she says.
Ironically, she can thank an unsuccessful audition for Home And Away for her big break.
“I was watching Home and Away - because I was a massive fan of the show - and at the end of the episode there was an add saying if you want to be on Home and Away, turn up to the Riverside Theatre to audition,” she says.
Hundreds of young hopefuls flocked to the Parramatta theatre desperate for a chance to show off their acting chops.
Nicodemou progressed through the casting process and eventually found herself one of two who were vying for the role of Sarah.
“It ended up being between me and Laura Vasquez and Laura actually got the part and she’s now our make-up artist here, so it’s come full circle,” she says.
Despite missing out on the job, her success in making it so far in the process inspired Nicodemou to return to dancing - which she had given up to concentrate on her studies.
That was a stroke of luck too, with her dance teacher’s mother working as an agent.
Before long, she was signed up and working as an extra in Summer Bay.
“I just remember trying to get in the back of people’s shots, because I figured that’s how I was going to be discovered,” she laughs. “Can you believe I did this? How embarrassing.”
* Home And Away, 7pm Monday to Friday, Seven.
Originally published as Ada Nicodemou on her new life and how role on Home and Away saved her