Actor / Director Profile

Born in Boston and raised in Vermont, Andrew Bowen's career began at the age of six when, after watching the movie Grease, he announced to his parents "I want to be like John Travolta when I grow up!" His mother quickly enrolled him in dance class and a year later he performed as the lead in his first play Once upon a Rhyme. Andrew continued studying Modern Jazz and Ballet for 8 years and did tons of local theater throughout High School. A bit of good luck (a director chose his grandmother's house at which to shoot a commercial) eventually landed him an agent in New York and during the summer following his High School Graduation, he landed his first role as Kathryn Erby's love interest in the Bill Murray / Richard Dryfuss comedy hit What About Bob?Although he received a letter from director Frank Oz before the film's release informing him that his role had ended up on the cutting room floor, undaunted Bowen packed his bags and headed for LA. In 1996, Andrew landed the lead role in a live-action interactive video game from Capcom called Fox Hunt playing Jack Fremont; a character best described as 'James Bond meets Dumb and Dumber'. Bowen's gift for lunacy and comedic timing helped him turn in a performance that wound up being so funny that the game was not only turned into a feature film and developed as a TV series but caught the eyes of executives at Warner Brothers who signed Andrew to a Talent Development Deal.While waiting for the Fox Hunt pilot to be shot, he wrote, directed and financed a short film called Lone Defender. The short was intended to serve as an auditioning piece to play Peter Parker for director James Cameron who was, at the time, attached to direct a Spider-Man movie. The Spider-Man movie fell into legal problems by the time Andrew finished the short, but it still served its purpose: as a catalyst for his desire to direct. Andrew quickly penned his spec script for "Along The Way" and began to shop it around town.Eventually, Andrew shot the pilot for Fox Hunt and although the show was not picked up, Andrew ended up joining the cast of Fox's "Mad TV" where, due in no small part to his uncanny impressions was quickly called one of the "New Talents to watch" by TV Guide. After a season on the show Andrew left and with the help of his father finally raised enough money to realize his dream to make "Along the Way". Production started that fall where the actor was so committed to the role he was going to play in the film that he gained over 40 lbs to play the hulking character of Jocko. His commitment paid off as a year later, when his rough cut was screened for the first time it ended in a standing ovation.After Winning ~ Best Feature~ at the Wilmington International Film Festival, a series of incidents stopped the film dead in it's tracks. After discovering that not only had thousands been embezzled from the film's budget and his post sound house had thrown away his films stems, Bowen's hopes of distribution were dashed by a company who, while holding his semi-complete masters, went bankrupt: taking the film away from him for almost 7 years.While Andrew fought for years to get his film back, thanks to the considerable fan base he acquired from his work on MAD TV he continued acting, landing recurring role's on such hit shows as ER (written specifically for him by creator John Wells) and Comedy Central's Reno 911! and notable guest appearances on such shows as Big Time Rush, Cold Case, CSI:NY, Dollhouse and Las Vegas.Some of Bowen's film credits include the cult horror hit CONJURER, The Award Winning indy feature Butterfly Dreaming and his critically acclaimed work in The Work And The Glory 2 & 3 playing American Frontier Legend Brigham Young. Bowen also produced and starred in the comedy short film These Boots Are Made For Walken from director Jeremy Pack, that has played in over 26 film festivals across the country and won numerous awards for Acting and Directing.In all, Bowen has appeared in over 22 episodes of a series, 26 guest spots, 16 feature films and 4 TV pilots including Breadwinners for Producers Gale Anne Hurd and Steven Tao. His credits include working with such high caliber directors as Lasse Hallstrom (What's Eating Gilbert Grape) and Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air).Bowen has also appeared in over 100 commercials and lent his voice talents to a variety of projects including numerous video games including The Old Republic, Path Of Neo (as the voice of "Neo" himself), is featured (through extensive mocap and facial capture work) as the lead in Sony's Killzone 3 and will be featured in Saint's Row the Third this fall.Bowen recently finished shooting director Paul Seetachitt's Sci Fi Comedy Feature Rock Jocks with Felicia Day, Doug Jones and Gerry Bednob and is currently shooting several episodes of the highly anticipated upcoming series MAGIC CITY for Starz. Bowen is also lending his talents to the action web-series The Division for Director Eric Won.Bowen is the president of I.C.D. Entertainment, INC. and the creative executive of Balance Pictures, the recently formed production company with president Michael George who are currently closing in on a deal to produce a TV series based on the Italian Graphic Novel John Doe. Bowen is also developing several feature scripts including the comedy Don't Fight The Feelin', a "Redneck Flashdance" he plans to star in with actress and friend Monica Potter (Parenthood).Bowen's high standards, wit, talent and ability to bring out the creative best in people have resulted in a large and rapidly growing fan base eager to support his blossoming career as creative force, an inventive character Actor and a chameleon like Leading Man.