Clare Maree Bowen is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her role as Scarlett O'Connor in the ABC/CMT musical-drama television series Nashville.
Early life and education
Bowen was born in Australia on 12 May 1984. Her parents Tony and Kathleen worked for Qantas and she spent time overseas as a child, including a stint with her family in Zimbabwe. Bowen is a cancer survivor, having had the disease between the ages of four and seven. She lived in Stanwell Park on the South Coast of New South Wales and attended primary school in Dulwich Hill, a suburb of Sydney. Bowen has a younger brother, Timothy, who is a musician. Bowen attended the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, where she received a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree in 2006. She is of Irish and Scottish descent
Career
Bowen appeared as the female lead in the Australian drama filmThe Combination in 2009 and has guest starred in The Cut, Gangs of Oz, Chandon Pictures and Home and Away. In 2010, Bowen was cast in the leading role of Wendla Bergman, in the Australian production of Spring Awakening, directed by Geordie Brookman, artistically overseen by Cate Blanchett at the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2012, Bowen landed a series regular role on the ABC drama series Nashville written by Academy Award winner Callie Khouri. The series was picked up by ABC on 11 May 2012. On 21 January 2014, the Zac Brown Band – featuring Bowen – released a live version of their No. 1 hit from 2010, "Free", with a transition into the famous Van Morrison song "Into the Mystic". Bowen is also preparing her first solo album, scheduled for 2015, about which she spoke in an interview with Rolling Stone: "We've recorded a couple things and I've been writing and writing and writing." Her self-titled debut album was eventually released on 31 August 2018.
Sonically, Bowen's music fits the Americana genre but also contains elements of pop, folk, country and adult contemporary music. When asked which musicians inspire her music, Bowen stated "Dolly Parton is probably the biggest one. She tells such wonderful stories and she’s so honest and she’s her. She makes fun of herself. She knows how to be silly and she knows how to be serious. She can lift people up after she’s told them a really heavy story. I think she’s just a really marvellous storyteller. She’s always been a big inspiration to me". She also added that she "loved the way Alison Krauss sings and the stories she tells" and professes her love of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Australian pop star Tina Arena and musical theatre legend Stephen Sondheim. Bowen asserts that Buddy Miller is her "ultimate music mentor" as he is "the one who taught to use a microphone when first got to Nashville", adding that he and his wife Julie "make such beautiful music together".
