Rose McGowan's Real Name: Rose Jane McGowan

Quick answer: Rose McGowan's documented full name is Rose Jane McGowan. Encyclopedia.com lists that form and dates her birth to September 5, 1973, in Florence, Italy, while noting that some sources cite December 13 or 14 and 1974 or 1975. A 2007 Los Angeles Times profile independently records a Florence birth but does not give a date (Encyclopedia.com; Los Angeles Times).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Rose McGowan. Encyclopedia.com gives the full name Rose Jane McGowan and says she immigrated to the United States around 1984, the daughter of Daniel McGowan, an artist and, the entry says, a former leader of a religious commune, and Terri McGowan, a writer. The Times says she was born in Florence to an American mother and an Irish father, was raised until age 10 in a Children of God commune where her father was the resident municipal custodian, and spoke primarily Italian. Those two accounts agree on a commune childhood but describe the father's role differently. The Times adds child modeling in Europe, a later move with her mother and five siblings to Oregon, and legal emancipation at 15. Encyclopedia.com records later study at beauty and art schools in Seattle and early work in a beauty salon.

Career highlights

Encyclopedia.com lists a film debut as Nora in Encino Man (1992), an Independent Spirit Award nomination for The Doom Generation (1995), and a widely seen role as Tatum Riley in Scream (1996). Later film credits in that entry include Bio-Dome (1996), Going All the Way (1997), Phantoms (1998), and Jawbreaker (1999), the last of which brought an MTV Movie Award nomination for best villain. She became a series regular as Paige Matthews on Charmed, which Encyclopedia.com dates as beginning in 2001. The Times, writing in April 2007 after her Charmed run had ended the previous spring, discusses her work as Cherry Darling in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, the opening segment of Grindhouse, a collaboration with Quentin Tarantino. Encyclopedia.com also notes modeling and spokesperson work for Bebe beginning in 1998.

Name notes for searchers

Rose Jane McGowan is the documented full name in Encyclopedia.com; the professional name is Rose McGowan. Searchers looking for Tatum in Scream or Paige on Charmed are usually aiming at the same person.