What We Know About Brothers Rob And Chad Lowe's Real-Life Relationship

Rob Lowe and Chad Lowe prove that talent just runs in their family. Rob got his first big acting break when he was 12 years old, playing Sherlock Holmes at the Wright State University theater. The role was all his own doing, and he shared with the Dayton Daily News in 1976, "You just call any place and ask them if there's a part for a kid. I called Wright State and they said, 'Yes.'" Rob's next big role was Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders" when he was 17 years old.

Chad got his start in television in 1984, and after starring in numerous series and made-for-television movies, he won an Emmy for his role as Jesse McKenna in the television series "Life Goes On." While he always felt a desire to pursue a career in the arts, Chad credits Rob for inspiring him to follow his dreams. "My brother Rob, I have to hand it over to him ... I mean he was determined to be an actor. When we were in Dayton, Ohio, he was doing community theater, he was doing showcases on public access television, so when we moved out to Malibu, he was put in a perfect position to try and follow his dream," Chad shared on "At Home With The Creative Coalition" podcast. The Lowe brothers went on to have equally successful careers in Hollywood, and decades later, they starred for the first time in a television show together.

Rob Lowe's latest acting gig is playing Officer Owen Strand in "9-1-1: Lone Star" and in 2022, his younger brother Chad Lowe starred alongside him in a guest role as his half-brother. "I of course was thrilled and felt it was a long time coming," Chad told TV Insider. The "Pretty Little Liars" star got to direct Rob in three episodes of the series, which he called "one of the highlights" of his career. "I say that for a number of reasons, one is [Rob's] just a very good actor and I've known that, but I got to experience that kind of intimately in sharing the scenes with him. As an actor, I always equate it to hitting the tennis ball and the better the player you're playing with, the better it makes you, so he really helped up my game as an actor," he shared.

On acting with his older brother, Chad joked with Fox News, "I did not want to fail. And I especially didn't want to fail in front of my brother. Because I would hear about it for the rest of our lives. But it was a little bit like riding a bicycle. And it didn't hurt that I was with my brother. Rob is just a really talented actor. He really brings the best out of me." In fact, the two brothers are so in tune with each other that they had an extra special way of communicating with each other while on set.

Sometimes, siblings are so close, they don't require words to communicate with each other, as is the case with Rob and Chad Lowe. While it may cause the brothers to clash when Chad is directing Rob on the set of "9-1-1: Lone Star," the older sibling told People, "We have ESP. So he knows before I say something, and I know [before] he says something. And if something isn't working, we both know without even talking to each other. We're just telepathic in ways where if it were another director, it would be a whole prolonged conversation that they might not even understand."

As well as bringing his brother Chad on set, Rob's son John Owen Lowe lent his talents to write an episode of "9-1-1: Lone Star," per Entertainment Weekly. "If you'd have told me that this would happen, I would've said you're crazy. Just all of the things that had to line up and all of the work that had to go into it, for all three of us to get to the place where it could happen, is extraordinary and totally a blessing," Rob gushed. Of working with his family, Chad shared, "I think we bring the best out in each other, so it reminds me a lot of how we used to play as kids, Rob and I. And now to have John Owen involved in it, it's just so much fun."