It’s been 11 years since we first met Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, and the rest of the Gossip Girl cast on TV. At some point in our lives, this show made us want to dress up as one of the women, have our own Chuck Bass, and bask in the Upper East Side lifestyle. We also obsessed on who Gossip Girl is for six seasons and had several ships all throughout. (Raise your hand if you’ve been team Blair and Chuck from the start.)
Gossip Girl opened lots of doors for the actors, and each of them have achieved different levels of success since the show premiered and ended. So, where are they now? Keep scrolling to find out.
Blake Lively
View this post on Instagram
Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen) has worked on several films in the past few years—her latest being A Simple Favor alongside Anna Kendrick. She’s also met her husband Ryan Reynolds on the set of Green Lantern, and they now have two kids together and an interesting, humorous marriage.
Blake has channeled Serena on the red carpet numerous times as well. The most memorable one are her Met Gala gowns. My personal favorite is her silver, gold, and wine red Versace gown.
Leighton Meester
Ms. Blair Waldorf, Leighton Meester proved that she’s a multi-faceted artist. Remember when she sang with Cobra Starship on “Good Girls Gone Bad” and thought that was the last of her singing career? Well, she released an album in 2014 titled Heartstrings. Leighton also made her Broadway debut in the 2014 production of Of Mice and Men.
Aside from those, Leighton got married to The O.C. star Adam Brody (the daytime TV universe just imploded) and they have two furbabies together. She’s also starring in the ABC show Single Parents which is premiering on Sept. 26.
Chace Crawford
Chace Crawford (Nate Archibald) is still active on TV and film, proving that his pretty boy looks (a trademark according to IMDB) is a hit. In 2010, he was considered for the role of Captain America. He guest-starred on Glee and played the lead role on Mountain Men in 2014. Fast forward to this year, he starred in the Amazon Studios film The Boys and has a thriller film coming up titled Charlie Says, based on the life of serial killer Charlie Manson.
Ed Westwick
View this post on Instagram
Despite all the movie and TV success that Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass) had gotten throughout the years, he’s been in the news because of sexual misconduct and rape allegations from three women. Several of his projects were postponed since last year because of these and a case was also filed against him. However, the charges were dropped in the US due to insufficient evidence, and Ed is expected to go back to work soon.
Penn Badgley
After Penn Badgley (Dan Humphrey) hung up his Gossip Girl persona (woops, spoiler), he’s starred teen cult movies Easy A and John Tucker Must Die. He also focused on a music career starting with his role in Greetings from Tim Buckley.
Penn has also embraced step-fatherhood when he got married to Domino Kirke in 2017. He told People that subscribing to the Bahá’í faith brought him and his wife closer before and after getting married.
Taylor Momsen
Known as Jenny “Little J” Humphrey in the show, Taylor Momsen is now far from her mischievous high school student role. She’s now the vocalist of metal-grunge band The Pretty Reckless, which released three albums and two EPs since 2010.
Art by Marian Hukom
For the latest in culture, fashion, beauty, and celebrities, subscribe to our weekly newsletter here
Follow Preen on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Viber
Related stories:
Why Blake Lively told off a reporter for asking about her outfit
Trump’s strategic communications director modeled for the Gossip Girl spinoff books
TV shows that got a second chance with reboots
Female-fronted bands that flip off gender stereotypes in music
