Rowan Blanchard

Rowan Blanchard is an American actress born on October 14, 2001. She began her acting career as a child, starring in the action film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011). She gained wide recognition for her lead role as Riley Matthews on the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World (2014–2017). She later starred in the television series Snowpiercer (2020–2024) and the coming-of-age film Crush (2022).

Blanchard was born in Los Angeles, California, to yoga instructors Elizabeth and Mark Blanchard-Boulbol. She has two younger siblings, Carmen and Shane. Her great-grandfather was Syrian and her great-grandmother was Armenian, having met in Aleppo, Syria. She was named after a character in Anne Rice's novel The Witching Hour.

Blanchard began acting in 2006 at five years old. Her early work included playing Mona's daughter in The Back-up Plan and Caitlin in the Disney Junior series Dance-a-Lot Robot. In 2011, she appeared as Rebecca Wilson in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, which earned her a Young Artist Award nomination, and as Raquel Pacheco in Little in Common.

In 2013, Blanchard was cast as Riley Matthews in Girl Meets World, a sequel to Boy Meets World. She performed the series' title song alongside co-star Sabrina Carpenter. The show ran for three seasons from 2014 to 2017, earning her nominations at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards, and Young Artist Awards. During her time with Disney, she also starred as Cleo in the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie Invisible Sister.

From 2017 to 2018, Blanchard held a recurring role as Jackie Geary on the ABC comedy series The Goldbergs. In 2018, she appeared in Ava DuVernay's film A Wrinkle in Time as Veronica Kiley. In March 2019, she was cast as Alexandra Cavill in the futuristic thriller series Snowpiercer, becoming a main cast member from the second season through its conclusion in 2024. In 2022, she co-starred alongside Auli'i Cravalho in the Hulu film Crush.

Blanchard guest-starred as Lily Albern in the comedy-drama series Poker Face in 2023. She was subsequently cast as Shunammite in the Hulu dystopian drama series The Testaments. Beyond acting, she wrote and released the book Still Here in February 2018.

Blanchard is an activist who addresses issues such as feminism, human rights, and gun violence. She spoke at the UN Women and US National Committee's annual conference for the #TeamHeForShe campaign. She has publicly advocated for Palestinians and was arrested in September 2024 during a demonstration outside the United Nations headquarters in New York. Her public recognition includes being named to Time's list of Most Influential Teens in 2015 and Harper's Bazaar's list of Rising Style Icons Under 20 Years Old in 2016.