Biography of Rose McGowan
You wouldn't know it from her voice, but Rose McGowan's life began in Florence, Italy, on September 5, 1973. Born to an French-American mother and an Irish father, Rose spent the first 10 years of her life in Florence without learning a word of English. It was only when her parents divorced that she moved to the U.S. and lived with her dad in Seattle.
Interested in show business, she left for Los Angeles to try acting and found her way into 1992's Encino Man with Pauly Shore. This was Rose McGowan's way into Hollywood and, after a meeting with upstart indie director Gregg Araki, Rose was cast in The Doom Generation, a genre favorite that resulted in a nomination for Best Debut Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards in 1996. A role in Scream gave her added mainstream attention, and Rose McGowan had more film auditions than she ever expected.
rose mcgowan joins the cast of charmed
From 1997 until 2001, Rose McGowan continued in films, including another role for Araki in Nowhere, a turn opposite Donnie Wahlberg in the critically acclaimed Southie and the wrestling comedy Ready to Rumble. Rose McGowan also got a taste of MTV Movie Awards acclaim when she was nominated for Best Villain in the cruel comedy Jawbreaker (1999) opposite Julie Benz and Rebecca Gayheart.
Not having had much exposure on television, Rose McGowan got a break when Charmed star Shannen Doherty was fired from the show and Rose was hired to replace her. She started on the series in 2001 as Paige Matthews and continued on the series until 2006, winning an award for "Favorite Sister" from the Family Television Awards along the way. Rose McGowan also took on occasional movie roles like the Brendan Fraser comedy Monkeybone (2001) and the Golden Globe-winning mini-series Elvis, which cast her as Ann-Margret.
Modeling
McGowan was the face of American clothing company Bebe from 1998 to 1999. She was also the cover model for the Henry Mancini tribute album Shots in the Dark, which was released in 1996. In addition to clothing endorsements, McGowan has appeared on numerous magazine covers, including Seventeen, Interview, Maxim, GQ, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. She has also frequently been featured on Maxim, FHM and Stuff magazine's sexiest women lists.
Awards
In 1996, McGowan was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in The Doom Generation. A few years later, at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, she was nominated for "Best Villain" for her role in Jawbreaker. In 2005, McGowan won "Best Sister" at the Family TV Awards, for her role on Charmed. In 2006, Blender included her on their list of the sexiest women of TV and film. The most recent award won by McGowan was under the category Femme Fatale for the 2007 Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards, which aired June 13, 2007. The award was for the role of Cherry in Grindhouse. McGowan was nominated for "Scream Queen" at the 2007 Scream Awards on Spike TV for her performance in Grindhouse.
Rose McGowan's schedule became manic in 2006 when she won roles in The Black Dahlia and both halves of the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino double bill Grindhouse. Rose was still contractually obligated to Charmed until the series was canceled, so she had to film her Grindhouse scenes outside of the shooting hours of Charmed. In Tarantino's Death Proof, Rose McGowan had a memorable cameo as Kurt Russell's unfortunate passenger, while Rodriguez cast her as a go-go dancer who becomes a fighting machine in the goofy Planet Terror. It was also reported and confirmed by Zap2It.com in 2007, that Rose and Rodriquez were engaged.
The Grindhouse films didn't set the box office on fire, but it did give Rose McGowan the kick-ass, offbeat and physically demanding roles that she relishes. She also got to do wire work, which she giddily compared to flying. Actress, beauty, thrill-seeker.
