After her film debut in a short position in the comedy Encino Man (1992), she achieved recognition for her efficiency at midnight comedy The Doom Generation (1995), receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance. After making her Hollywood film debut with a brief position in the Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man (1992), McGowan was cast within the main function in Gregg Araki's darkish comedy The Doom Generation (1995), which revolved round a threesome of teens who embark on a sex and violence-filled journey. The Bite Model describes four categories of coercion used on intercourse trafficking victims: behavior control, info control, thought control, and emotional management. In the present, concerning the trio of witches using their combined powers to protect innocent lives from evil beings, McGowan played the character from season 4 till its closing eighth season. The "ASP" label died with the dot-com crash, however the idea nonetheless lives on in virtually each dynamic web web page on the web. She carried out three songs from the Planet Terror portion of Grindhouse, launched on the movie's soundtrack by the Varèse Sarabande label.
The 17-minute film premiered on the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to important acclaim; Way Too Indie noted: "This was a real gem of a short film. Dawn's salient literary and cultural references, paired with the film's high production value, gorgeous photographs, its gradual-burner buildup and gripping conclusion, carry one thing to the desk for everybody, and portends a superb directorial profession for Ms. McGowan". McGowan brought on controversy in September 2008 whilst selling the movie at a Toronto International Film Festival press conference, the place she acknowledged: "I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I might 100% have been in the IRA. My coronary heart simply broke for the trigger. Violence is not to be played out each day and provide a solution to issues, but I perceive it." This prompted director Kari Skogland and the film's producers to problem a public apology, stating that McGowan's views didn't mirror their very own. Her subsequent movie release, Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008), revolved round Martin McGartland, a British agent who went undercover into the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In 2010, McGowan shot a cameo within the Robert Rodriguez function Machete, a task ultimately reduce, but included on the DVD release, and played a semi-homeless junkie in the fantasy drama Dead Awake.
In 2007, McGowan headlined Grindhouse, a double characteristic horror film by administrators Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Jawbreaker soundtrack, and she recorded the theme music from the film Dead Awake (2010). Within the third season of Chosen (2014), a tv sequence airing via Crackle, McGowan took on the function of an experienced hunter. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times felt the "sumptuous" track offered a room for the singer to "flex her impressive stylistic chops". Philip Matusavage in a review for the musicOMH pointed out the strains "you're the shit, that makes you my equal" as re-appropriation of "After i Get You Alone" (2002) by singer Robin Thicke. In a assessment of the fourth season, Leigh H. Edwards of PopMatters added that the addition of Paige was "contrived and clunky", but welcomed the concept of McGowan becoming a member of the show as a witch "since she has main goth cred as Marilyn Manson's former flame". Various studies show different communication strategies with a feminine individual refusing a masculine person's sexual curiosity. In 2001, McGowan was forged for the position of Paige Matthews in the popular WB supernatural drama collection Charmed, as a alternative for the lead actress Shannen Doherty, who had left the show.
During the 2000s, McGowan became recognized to television audiences for her position as Paige Matthews in the WB supernatural drama sequence Charmed (2001-2006). She went on to star in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's double-feature film Grindhouse (2007), for which she was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress and the Scream Award for Best Scream Queen. Also in 2008, McGowan took on a recurring function as a con artist on the acclaimed drama series Nip/Tuck, and co-hosted the TCM's movie-series program The Essentials alongside Robert Osborne, discussing classic Hollywood film. Further, within the episode I, Mudd a number of sequence of feminine robots were created to the personal specifications of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. She guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a grifter who targets New York intercourse clubs, and also in two episodes of Once Upon A Time between 2012 and 2014, enjoying the role of the younger Cora Mills. In the Charmed episode "Sense and Sense Ability", McGowan performed, in character, a cover of the Peggy Lee traditional "Fever". Commenting it was "a primer on what sex with Beyoncé is like", Chris Bosman from the website Consequence of Sound concluded the observe "beats R. Kelly at his personal recreation of pairing hyper-particular, 'so ridiculous they're incredible' bedroom euphemisms with the most traditional of soul vibes".