MacDowell dropped away from Winthrop College as a sophomore around 1978, and signed by owning Elite Model Management. She appeared around print & televion advertisements for the cosmetic and hairdressing company ''L'Oreal, a job she continued even after she got her first job as an actress. The series of television commercials for Calvin Klein drew attention to her and led inside 1984 to her film debut in Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, a role in which her lines were rerecorded by Glenn Close. Around 1985, she had the little section in St. Elmo's Fire, but her film career seemed to have stalled.

4 years late, inside 1989, she hit her professional stride. Director Steven Soderbergh cast her in the independent film Sex, Lies, and Videotape; her performance earned her several award nominations & led to the series of starring roles around films like Green Card, The Object of Beauty, & Short Cuts. As of 2004, her biggest successes were in the box office hits Groundhog Day and Four Weddings & the Funeral.

MacDowell was married between 1986 and 1999 to former model & rancher Paul Qualley; a few have a boy & 2 girl. Around 2001, she married Atlanta, Georgia businessman Rhett Hartzog. It divorced within 2004.

Selected filmography
Barnyard (2006) Beauty Shop (2005) Crush (2001) Muppets From Space (1999) Multiplicity (1996) Bad Girls (1994) Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Short Cuts (1993) Groundhog Day (1993) The Player (1992) Hudson Hawk (1991) Green Card (1990) Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) St. Elmo's Fire'' (1985)