Jessica Szohr: Snapshot
- Name
- Jessica Szohr
- Date of Birth
- March 31, 1985
- Birth Place
- Milwaukee, Wis.
The former model from Milwaukee first made her mark on TV audiences as Barry Watson's sexy neighbor and love interest Laura on ABC's What About Brian.
While the actress, who has appeared in both PEOPLE's Most Beautiful and Best Dressed issues, is busy spicing things up as Penn Badgley's bestie on Gossip Girl, she's taking a big-screen plunge in Piranha 3-D in 2010.
People Hot List - Which Stars Have the Most Buzz?
- Jennifer Aniston
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Jessica Szohr: Five Fun Facts
- Jessica Szohr's celebrity crush? Ferris Bueller from the 1986 film starring Matthew Broderick. "Where was he when I was in high school?" she asked PEOPLE.
- As a teen, Jessica Szohr started a cleaning business with a friend. "We would go to our teachers' houses and clean," she told Seventeen.
- After 10 years of not eating meat, Jessica Szohr ditched vegetarianism after trying her boyfriend's burger. "It was orgasmic," she told Men's Health.
- Jessica Szohr didn't grow up dreaming of becoming an actress. "When I moved to L.A. I decided to try an acting class," she told Ocean Drive magazine. "I did one scene, and it changed my life. I thought, 'If acting can make you feel like this, that's all I want to do.'"
- Gossip Girl author Cecily von Ziegesar loves the show, but hates Jessica Szohr's character on the series. "I just wish Vanessa was like she is in the books a bit more," the author said.
Jessica Szohr: Biography 
- 2003
Midwestern Girl
The Wisconsin native, who begins modeling at age 5, graduates from Menomonee Falls High School. "I'm from a very Midwest, family-oriented small town," the future Gossip Girl star explains to Ocean Drive magazine in 2009, "and my friends were nothing like these kids that grew up on the Upper East Side." Szohr heads to California after graduation, where she lands TV spots on What About Brian and CSI: Miami.
- 2007
Brooklyn Outsider
Szohr makes her debut as Brooklynite Vanessa Abrams on The CW's new hit Gossip Girl. "When I saw the pilot, I thought there's no way anyone actually had lives like that in high school," she says. The racy series also stars Penn Badgley, Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick and Taylor Momsen.
- 2008
GG Conquers TV
After being declared "the most awesomely awesome show ever" by New York magazine, the onscreen couples of Gossip Girl appear on Entertainment Weekly. With love interest Crawford (who plays prepster Nate Archibald), Szohr nabs her first national magazine cover.
Photo Credits
Top Left: J. Graylock/JPI
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Michael Tran/FilmMagic; Eric Liebowitz/The CW; Courtesy EW
