Kelly Rowan has an overriding -- and more than slightly cliche -- memory of the 12 years she spent growing up in Canada's capital.

"It's cold," says the Ottawa-born star of The O.C. over the phone from Toronto. "There are very large snowbanks."

The 36-year-old, who spent yesterday doing Canadian media interviews at the Windsor Arms Hotel, has come a long way from Nepean's Parkwood Hills Public School to Orange County, Calif., the setting for the snappy, witty, flashy new water cooler show that's carried by Fox and CTV.

Dubbed the breakthrough series of the television season by Entertainment Weekly, The O.C. is reminiscent of Beverly Hills 90210 except there are more laughs, the writing is better, and the parents -- Rowan plays breadwinning matriarch Kirsten Cohen, married to an idealistic public defender played by Peter Gallagher -- are integral to the plot.

Rowan had to audition five times before she snagged the role of Kirsten, mom to geeky teen son Seth (Adam Brody), who must adjust when her husband takes in a brooding, troubled teen named Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie).

Rowan, who can be on the set shooting for up to 16 hours a day, says she feels sheltered from all the buzz around the show these days.

"When I pop out to do things like this, you kind of go 'oh,' " she said. "But to be perfectly honest, I get in my car at five in the morning to go to the studio and I drive home."

She emphasizes the cast members genuinely like each other -- gelling from Day 1 and hanging out off screen -- and has a kind of chemistry palpable to viewers.

"I was shooting Friday night and we were just laughing so hard, we couldn't get through a scene," she said. "It gets pretty kooky sometimes, there are a lot of outtakes."

No, Rowan can't say if McKenzie is dating starlet Mischa Barton, who plays love interest Marissa Cooper, or if Brody is stepping with Rachel Bilson, who plays his TV girlfriend Summer. And she doesn't have any dirt on Paris Hilton, who had a cameo on Monday's episode.

"I don't really know a lot about the kids' personal dating habits," she said. "People ask and I'm like, 'I wish I could tell you, I don't really know what's going on.' "

Rowan decided she wanted the role after seeing Gallagher, and executive producers McG (Charlie's Angels) and Doug Limon (The Bourne Identity) attached to the project, along with solid writing from 27-year-old creator Josh Schwartz.

"It's always amazing to me when he writes this woman. She's dynamic, has depth to her and is dealing with a lot, she's trying to juggle a career and a family, the compromises involved," said Rowan. "And I think that's what people respond to, he creates these flawed characters."

The O.C.'s a fast-moving show filled with inside jokes. In one scene, Gallagher's character warns his son "don't spend an extra minute in L.A., that town will steal your soul." Later, Ryan (the actor who plays him is 25) spots Colin Hanks, guest-starring as the lead in a fictional show called The Valley. "How's that guy play high school?" he wonders.

Rowan, an only child who spent her teens in Toronto, got into acting when she did some commercials to help fund English studies at the University of Western Ontario. She spent three years in New York before heading to Los Angeles in 1990.

Before The O.C., she appeared on NBC's Boomtown, starred opposite Samuel Jackson in the 1997 drama One Eight Seven and had small roles in 1991's Hook, 1995's Assassins and 1999's Three to Tango. In 1993 she won a Gemini Award for the Canadian TV movie Adrift, and is especially proud of her work on the 1999 CBS movie Anya's Bell alongside fellow Ottawa native and former Ed star Tom Cavanagh.

Rowan, who has written a play in her spare time, has a side passion for developing new projects with her producing partner Graham Ludlow. The pair are gathering funding for their adaptation of Tracing Iris by Canadian author Genni Gunn.

After getting The O.C. role, Rowan, who is single, treated herself to a two-week trip to Florence to soak up the local culture and arts scene.

That trip and a couple of pairs of those pointy Jimmy Choo pumps the well-dressed Kirsten is fond of, will be her only real extravagances until Rowan can be sure The O.C. is a steady gig.

"You're going to have times where you don't work. That's why you save your money," she said. "And then you just buy shoes and that's your splurge."


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