Jessica Szohr: Snapshot

Name
Jessica Szohr
Date of Birth
March 31, 1985
Birth Place
Milwaukee, Wis.
With her gorgeous looks and downtown style, Jessica Szohr has wooed both Nate Archibald and Dan Humphrey as Brooklynite Vanessa Abrams on Gossip Girl. But it's her real-life romance with costar Ed Westwick that has Gossip lovers captivated.

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. With her GG fame came her spot on PEOPLE's Most Beautiful and Best Dressed lists, as well as her box-office shot in 2010's Piranha 3-D .

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Jessica Szohr: Five Fun Facts

  1. 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.
  2. As a teen, Jessica Szohr started a cleaning business with a friend. "We would go to our teachers' houses and clean," she told Seventeen.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.'"
  5. 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

Jessica Szohr

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

Jessica Szohr

October 24

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

Jessica Szohr

September 22

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.

Read More on Jessica Szohr's Life

Photo Credits

Top Left: J. Graylock/JPI

BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Michael Tran/FilmMagic; Eric Liebowitz/The CW; Courtesy EW

Edited by Janet Mock and Julia Wang

Jessica Szohr

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