Ada Nicodemou has spent half her life on television. Starting off at the tender age of 16, Ada jumped headfirst into her role as Katerina Iannou in Heartbreak High. A headstrong troubled teen in the show, we watched her blossom right before our eyes. But it’s her role on Australian hit drama show Home and Away, playing Leah Patterson-Baker, that has cemented her place as an icon of Australian television.
Now in her thirteenth year, Ada is one of the longest serving cast members of the hit Australian show. She gets to work 48 weeks in a year as a paid actress with Palm Beach – the idyllic New South Wales beach where Summer Bay is set – as her office. And she’s an actress who has the luxury of having a life outside of her day job. With all that in mind, one can only come to the assumption she won’t be giving that up any time soon.
“There isn’t a day that I walk on set and I don’t want to be there,” Ada explains. “It’s a great place to work, it’s a comfortable place to work, and it’s a great show because you are practicing your craft every day,” she says of her time on Home and Away. Having played the same character since she was in her early 20’s, you have to wonder where does Leah stop and Ada begin? Does she ever get confused?
“The amount of traumatic things that Leah has gone through I’d be insane to think I was her,” she says with a laugh. With two dead husbands under her belt, and more recently with her best friend being shot in Leah’s house, Ada says that her life – which she describes as “boring, beautiful and easy going” is far removed from the character she has lived with for over 12 years.
“Look, I love Leah to death and I know her inside out and I always say in interviews I think Leah would make your perfect best friend.
“She’s the voice of reason in the Bay [Summer Bay]. As a viewer you know how to gauge what is happening depending on what Leah’s opinion is on it. She’s just very reasonable and people come to her for advice, she’s just an all-round good person,” says Ada of her character. As an actress, Ada doesn’t take the fact that she’s been working in such a tough industry – pretty much since she started in the game – for granted.
Born and bred in Sydney to Cypriot parents, Ada wasn’t, as you would say, bitten by the acting bug at any stage that she can remember. But she was a gregarious and talented child, who loved the stage, loved to dance and would be the first one to grab the microphone at a Greek dance. A twelve-week acting course whilst still at school helped her land the role in the multicultural television show Heartbreak High, which really gave her the big break she didn’t know she was looking for. “It will always hold a special place in my heart,” says Ada of her time on Heartbreak High.
It was a show where Ada first learned her craft and still to this day draws on for work. As the youngest in the cast, she said she was taken under the wing from the other cast members who she still stays in touch with today. And now, as a loyal Channel 7 employee, Ada was approached to host the newest in the line of reality tv shows Please Marry my Boy. She had always had an interest in hosting a show, and now has the opportunity to show Australia she can.
“I love romance and people falling in love,” says Ada, “and I love reality television, I am a tv junkie so it’s such a perfect fit.
“And the show has such beautiful heart and warmth and I think everyone will instantly relate to it.” In life, they say mother know’s best and in the case of this latest romantic reality tv experiment, it couldn’t be more true. Four Aussie blokes, who have been unlucky in love thus far, have asked their mums to lend a helping hand. Together they go on a quest to find their son the perfect wife. “The mother’s can be intimidating and strong willed, but they only want the best for their boys so you care for them for that reason. Like any mother they are very protective,” says Ada of the mother’s chosen in this quest.
The show begins with ten girls who have been matched to each son, going on a set of speed dates with a difference: they will be speed dating their prospective partner’s mothers too. After that, the mum’s pick three lucky women to move in with them. Under mum’s roof, the girls face a few challenges and bumps in the road all the while learning a few hard lessons about love. She says her background has made her equipped to become empathetic towards the mother’s and their wants for their sons on the show.
“I think growing up in a European household teaches you family values and I guess that makes you well equipped for a show like this because I can understand mother’s getting involved and wanting to be part of it,” she says with a laugh. Ada says she holds a special place for Milena Lalic, the Serbian mother trying to find her South Australian Vlad a “good girl”.
“She wants to find a good girl that’s going to cook and clean for her son and I guess a lot of the Anglo-Saxons would be like ‘Oh My God who would do that?’ but I can understand that. I am a working girl just like my husband is but I still do all the housework, but he works harder than me so of course … but you know a lot of Greek mum’s still expect the women to cook and clean for their sons because that’s what they’ve done, they’ve spoilt them all their lives.” Ada, who is happily married herself, says she had no problems with meeting her husband Chrys’s (Xipolitas) mother.
“I get along really well with parents and maybe because I just make an effort and I am very respectful and I speak nicely to my elders and I think parents see that instantly,” she explains. “I think it’s important to get along with the whole family because it just causes unnecessary problems otherwise.” And those problems in the show are there for all to see as the ladies not only have to impress their fella, and his mother, but there’s the extended family to think about too.
Although Ada doesn’t play a hand herself in the matchmaking on the show, she sure loves to give it a go in real life, even though her success rate hasn’t fared too well. “I wish I could say I’ve had wedding bells, I haven’t… yet,” she says with a sly giggle, “but I like the idea of putting people together because I think there are so many people out there that are single that are fantastic. And that’s the same as these guys on the show as they are all really lovely. It’s so endearing when they are so honest about how they feel and what they want and they’ve allowed themselves to go on a show like this where their mothers have all the say. I think that’s very brave of them.”
You’d think hosting a show about something as raw as the emotions of the heart could get tricky but Ada says that the fundamentals of love and wanting a person to share your life with is perfectly natural, making it the most easiest thing in the world, independent of background or age.
“I think it’s natural, we all want to find love, most of us want to find love, settle down and get married and ultimately have children,” she says. “I think if you are just yourself and don’t put on any airs and graces and be open and honest the right person always comes along when they’re meant to come along. “And that’s what happened with me. I remember everyone saying ‘you know when the right person comes along’. As long as you are yourself it makes the whole relationship so much easier.”
Please Marry my Boy screens on channel 7 Monday nights at 8:30 pm.