Bio

At seven years old, Tess Adams made her Broadway debut as Young Cosette in the 2006 revival of Les Misérables. She has sung as a principle soloist in venues all over the world; highlights include The National Symphony Orchestra (Wolftrap), The Boston Pops, The Utah Symphony, The San Diego Symphony, The Seattle Symphony, 54 Below, The Green Room 42, and Birdland Jazz Club. As a child, she became a favorite of the late great Marvin Hamlisch and was often invited to perform under his baton in pops concerts where her mother, singer Anne Runolfsson, was also appearing.

With her mother, she has developed a multi-media cabaret piece (“The Story Goes On”) chronicling her nomadic upbringing and their chaotic, intertwined journey as a single mother-daughter duo in show business. Since performing for a sold out audience at The Green Room 42 (NYC), they’ve performed for audiences in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Maryland. As a duo, they were most recently seen at 54 Below.

Recent theatrical credits include Cathy in The Last Five Years and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Legacy Theatre (Branford, CT); Alice in “U-Haul” and Chloe in “Step by Step” at The Barrow Group. In March of 2020, Tess made her film debut in My (unauthorized) Hallmark Movie Musical directed by Crissy Guerrero.

Tess graduated Magna Cum Laude from Quinnipiac University (University Honors Program) in June 2021 with a BA in Theater Studies and English. She is also an alumna of the semester length classical acting program at BADA in London. College credits include RAGE: A Play with Music (featured in American Theatre Magazine; dir. Elizabeth Dinkova), Love and Information (dir. Rory Pelsue), The Rover (dir. Bethany Pitts), Doubt: A Parable (dir. Tom Schwans), Seven Minutes in Heaven, and Rumors. As a teen, Tess spent several semesters training at both Stella Adler’s Teen Weekend Conservatory and Atlantic Studio’s Young Actors Program.

Currently based in NYC, Tess hopes to pursue a career in storytelling that will inspire and reflect prescient socio-political dialogues.

@tess_adams_