Rowan Blanchard


Rowan Blanchard is an American actress. She is known for her role as Riley Matthews on the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World that aired from 2014 until 2017. From 2017 until 2018, she made recurred on The Goldbergs as Jackie Geary.

Life and career

Early life

Blanchard was born in Los Angeles, California, to Elizabeth and Mark Blanchard-Boulbol, who are yoga instructors. Her paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the Middle East, who had paternal Syrian ancestry and maternal Armenian ancestry, and her paternal grandmother's ancestors are from England, Denmark, and Sweden. Her paternal great grandparents had met in Aleppo, present-day Syria. She was named after a character in Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. Rowan has two younger siblings, Carmen and Shane.

Career

Blanchard began acting in 2010 at the age of five, first being cast as Mona's daughter in The Back-up Plan and was in the main cast of the Disney Junior Original Series Dance-a-Lot Robot as Caitlin. In 2011, she was cast as Rebecca Wilson in , and as Raquel Pacheco in Little in Common. In late January 2013, Blanchard was cast as Riley Matthews in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World. She also sings the title song, along with co-star Sabrina Carpenter. The titular character is the daughter of Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World. She is an active member of Disney Channel Circle of Stars. In early January 2015, Blanchard was cast as Cleo in the Disney Channel Original Movie Invisible Sister.
In September 2017, Blanchard announced that she would be releasing a book, titled Still Here, which was published in February 2018. Blanchard also co-starred in the feature film adaptation A Wrinkle in Time, which was released in March 2018. On March 27, 2019, it was reported by Deadline that Blanchard was cast as Alexandra in TNT’s Snowpiercer, a futuristic thriller starring Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs based on the 2013 South Korean-Czech film of the same name by Bong Joon-ho, from Marty Adelstein’s Tomorrow Studios and Turner’s Studio T. Blanchard will be a guest star with an option to become a series regular in the series' second season.

Personal life

In a series of tweets in January 2016, she stated that while she had "only ever liked boys" in the past, she was "open to liking any gender" and therefore she identifies as queer.
Blanchard is a public activist in areas such as feminism, human rights, and gun violence. While most of her comments regarding these issues are posted via Twitter or Tumblr, she has spoken at the UN Women and US National Committee's annual conference as part of #TeamHeForShe, a feminist campaign.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2010Dance-a-Lot RobotCaitlinMain role
2014–2017Girl Meets WorldRiley MatthewsLead role
2015Best Friends WheneverRiley MatthewsEpisode: "Cyd and Shelby's Haunted Escape"
2015Invisible SisterCleoDisney Channel Original Movie
2016Beat Bobby FlayGuest judgeEpisode: “Back to School”
2017–2018The GoldbergsJackie GearyRecurring role, 12 episodes
2018Neo YokioBergdorf Chan / Salesclerk 3 / Teenage GirlEpisode: "Pink Christmas"
2018–2019Splitting Up TogetherChinaEpisodes: "Messy", "China-Curious"
2020SnowpiercerAlexandra CavillGuest role ; main role

Awards and nominations