Bowen was born Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Suzanne (née Frey) and John Alexander Luetkemeyer, Jr., a real estate agent. She first attended St. George's School, then Roland Park Country School and continued on to Brown University, majoring in Italian Renaissance studies. In her junior year, Bowen spent a year abroad in Florence, Italy. During college, she had Read more...

After graduation, Bowen had a role in the soap opera Loving and made her primetime debut on an episode of the college drama Class of '96. She also had the lead role in the 1994 television film Runaway Daughters, playing opposite Paul Rudd.

In films, Bowen played the love interest of the title character in Happy Gilmore. Roles in other films include An American Werewolf in Paris and Multiplicity. Read more...

Bowen is the middle child of three sisters. Her older sister, Molly Luetkemeyer, is an interior designer who has appeared on Clean Sweep, and her younger sister, Annie Luetkemeyer, is a doctor at UCSF in the HIV/AIDS Division. Bowen married Scott Phillips, a real-estate investor, on September 9, 2004; their son Oliver McLanahan Phillips was born April 10, 2007, in Los Angeles.