Bio
Kelly Rowan is a Canadian actress and former fashion model best known for her role as Kirsten Cohen on the television drama series The O.C., from 2003-2007.
She also stars as Natalie Vincent, Daniel's (Eric McCormack) best friend and intellectual equal, in the police procedural crime drama television series Perception.
Rowan is a graduate of Toronto's Northern Secondary School. At the age of 20, she left the University of Western Ontario before she attained her degree in English Literature to join the cast of the Canadian series Mount Royal.
Though Rowan has discussed what a tough decision it was to leave university, the young actress found the opportunity to shoot the show in Paris, France too irresistible.
Rowan went on to further her education, studying acting at the British American Drama Academy in London and, upon returning to North America, relocating to New York to study at the city’s famed Neighborhood Playhouse.
Rowan began modeling in her college years to earn extra cash, becoming involved in acting while working in commercials. Her acting career took off in 1980.
Appearing in such movies as The Gate, Hook, Three to Tango and A Girl Thing, Rowan remained a recognisable face without a well-known name for years, guest-starring in television shows such as The Outer Limits, Growing Pains, Da Vinci's Inquest, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Dallas.
In 1993 She won a Gemini award for her work in the made-for-TV movie Adrift.
In 2002, Rowan guest-starred in three episodes of Boomtown, playing Marian, the deceived wife of David McNorris (Neal McDonough). (She returned for one last episode in 2003).
That same year, she was cast as Kirsten Cohen on the drama series The O.C., alongside Peter Gallagher, Tate Donovan, Adam Brody and Melinda Clarke, with whom she appeared on an episode of CSI.
She was a main character on The O.C., and for her role as the recovering alchoholic mother, she won the Prism Award, for which she had already been nominated the previous year.
Rowan has volunteered as an actress with the Young Storytellers Program. She has also starred in TV-husband Peter Gallagher's music video, Still I Long For Your Kiss, a song from his album 7 Days in Memphis, which was released in 2005.
She also appeared in the television movie In God's Country.
Presently, Rowan has finished a film with Freddie Prinze Jr., Jack and Jill vs. the World, which is set to be released in 2008.
On June 20, 2007 it was announced that Rowan was engaged to the Canadian billionaire David Thomson, the 10th-richest person on the planet. The couple broke off their engagement the following year.