Leighton Meester: Snapshot
- Name
- Leighton Meester
- Birth Date
- April 09, 1986
- Birth Place
- Marco Island, Fla.
Opposite Chase Crawford, Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, Meester's performance has been hailed by Variety as "a predatory junior Joan Collins who practically breathes fire out of her pinched, perfectly WASP-ish nostrils." Pre-GG, Meester made the TV rounds on such hit series as 24, House M.D. and Entourage, where she played a virginal pop star. In 2008, with her Gossip Girl costars, Meester landed on PEOPLE's Most Beautiful List.
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Leighton Meester: Five Fun Facts
- Leighton Meester was a blonde before going brunette to audition for Gossip Girl. "They said, 'Please, you can't wear a wig.' So I dyed my hair before I even got the part. That's a big deal but I'm glad I did!" Meester told the AP.
- Leighton Meester, who has aspirations to release an album, recorded a song for the soundtrack of her 2007 horror-comedy film Drive-Thru.
- Although her Gossip Girl character, Blair Waldorf, is often labeled a bitch, Leighton Meester says she relates to Blair. "Blair's shortcomings are because of her insecurities," Meester told the AP. "She feels all this pressure to be perfect: to be the most beautiful, the most popular, the most loved."
- Gossip Girl shoots on the same stage occupied for ten years by HBO's The Sopranos at Silvercup Studios in Queens, N.Y.
- Leighton Meester loves Valentino, who, she told WWD, "is one who never misses." But she wouldn't drop cash on fashion like her character Blair: "I would never just walk into the Valentino boutique and go, 'I'm gonna take this leopard-print gown.' You can never wear it again, it's so memorable. You'd want to borrow it for the red carpet."
Leighton Meester: Biography 
- 1990s
From Child Model to Actor
At 10, Leighton Meester decides she wants to be an actress. But she gets her start as a child model, signing with Wilhelmina Models and appearing in Ralph Lauren ads. At 13, after relocating from Florida to New York City, she makes her TV acting debut on an episode of Law & Order. "You ask people when they've just finished college what they want to do and they have no idea, and sometimes they never know," she tells Australia's Herald Sun. "But actors seem to know at an early age. I was lucky that I had such supportive parents."
- 2004
Entourage: Virgin Territory
After appearing as Jane's sister in the WB's failed series, Tarzan and Jane, Meester plays virginal pop singer Justine Chapin on the HBO hit Entourage. In the episode, Jessica Alba – who appears as herself – invites the boys to a party she's throwing for Meester's character, who flirts with movie star Vince Chase (played by Adrian Grenier, right).
- 2005
24: Poisoned Tea
Meester heads to Fox's 24 as Debbie Pendleton (left) in the acclaimed show's fourth season. She plays the American girlfriend of Behrooz Araz (played by Jonathan Ahdout) and gets poisoned by Araz's mother in her four episode-run. Meester also appears on Veronica Mars, with Kristen Bell, House M.D., and CSI: Miami.
Photo Credits
Top Left: CW
