Isabel Rose was born and in Manhattan where she attended both the Nightingale Bamford and Dalton schools before earning her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale University. She also holds an MFA in fiction and literature from Bennington College. As an actress, she starred both Off-Broadway and regionally in Beau Jest, appeared in numerous productions at the Williamstown Theater Festival and played the role of Tess Kittridge in the first National Tour of Six Degrees of Separation. In 2003, Samuel Goldwyn released the film Anything But Love, which Rose co-wrote and starred in opposite Andrew McCarthy and Eartha Kitt. In addition to winning the Best Up and Coming Actress award at the San Diego Film Festival, the film also won Audience Awards and Best Film awards at numerous festivals and is available now on video and DVD and can be seen regularly on Lifetime.

Rose's first novel, The J.A.P. Chronicles, was published by Doubleday in late May, 2005 and was released in paperback in the summer of '06. Her non-fiction essays have been included in two recent anthologies (The Honeymoon's Over, Warner Books, and Money Changes Everything, Doubleday). In the spring of '06, Rose performed a seven week run of a musical version of her novel, The J.A.P. Chronicles, which she also composed. Her first jazz album, Boy Wanted, will be released in the coming months. She is currently at work on several projects including her second novel, a series of children's books and a CD for children.