Rowan Blanchard

Life and career

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 was of part Armenian ancestry, and her paternal grandmother's ancestors are from England, Denmark, and Sweden. She was named after a character in Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. Rowan has two younger siblings, Carmen and Shane.

Blanchard began acting at the age of five. In 2010, Rowan was 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 Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, 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 2016, it was announced that Blanchard was set to co-star in a feature film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time; the film was expected to begin production in November.

Personal life

Rowan 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.

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.