Looking back over 10 years now to the debut of Gossip Girl is such a weird thing because it was very much a cast of pretty young adults just starting to make the rounds in the television and movie scene and after doing that show, many of their lives are just completely different now. Blake Lively has basically taken over Hollywood with her beau Ryan Reynolds. Leighton Meester recently made some major waves on Instagram when she dyed her hair platinum blonde. Taylor Momsen is basically the rock star we've always wished we could be. And Chace Crawford continues to ooze all kinds of handsomeness for the world to take in on a daily basis — and thank goodness for that!
Here is a little look at where they are now: the cast of Gossip Girl ten years later!
15 The girl with the hair that won't stop, Serena van der Woodsen
For those of us who were fans of the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, we were more than happy to learn that Blake Lively got the coveted role of Serena van der Woodsen in the book to television adaptation of Gossip Girl.
Things were especially ablaze for the young starlet for the first few seasons of the hit TV show as the actress (as quietly as possible) dated her co-star Penn Badgley, she began dating and married fellow Green Lantern actor Ryan Reynolds just as the show was wrapping up. The two actors now have two young girls and Lively has continued on in a film career that hits all of the niches from romance with Age of Adaline to cheesy action adventure movies like The Shallows. Production on her recent action movie The Rhythm Section was recently halted due an accident on set where Lively injured her hand.
14 The ultimate Queen Bee, Blair Waldorf
There wasn't anyone who could sport a headband along with a withering stare quite like our girl Leighton Meester. She played ultimate frenemy to Serena van der Woodsen and overall Queen Bee of the Upper East Side, Blair Waldorf.
In our humble opinion, things haven't been nearly as busy for this talented actress as they should be. She's done a few more independent movies—Life Partners co-starring Gillian Jacobs being a personal favorite, but maybe it was her marriage to Adam Brody (who she acted with in Life Partners, but met while filming The Oranges in 2011) that has led to acting taking more a back burner. The couple welcomed daughter Arlo Day in the summer of 2015 and are supposedly trying hard for a second.
13 Brooklyn's Lonely Boy, Dan Humphrey
First off, can we just say how this GIF is quite possibly the very definition of annoyingly adorable while at the same time being completely hypnotizing.
There's something to be said when the pinnacle of your acting career is a teen drama about the elite world of New York's Upper East Side. In Badgley's defense though, right when things winded down on Gossip Girl was exactly when he had the time to dedicate to his band, MOTHXR. Starting out as a fun little side project, the band has really garnered some attention as well as a dedicated fan base, perhaps due to some of Penn's Gossip Girl fans watching him grow up a little. Though Badgley hasn't completely disappeared from the world of television as the trailer just recently dropped for his "creepy" new Lifetime series You hitting televisions in the fall. We can't wait!
12 "I'm Chuck Bass" said Ed Westwick so perfectly every time
For actor Ed Westwick, who played the iconic role of sinister playboy turned the one we all fawned over, Chuck Bass, things have been fairly quiet on the acting front the past few years. He's had a few roles in movies and smaller television shows over the past few years, but the thing that garnered some attention was his role on mini series White Gold where he played a charismatic business man in 1980's England.
Things recently took a dark turn in his personal life as four women have accused the actor of assault. Though Westwick denied these claims along the way (even turning to his Instagram to send a clear message to the masses), he has revealed that he is "cooperating with the authorities so that they can clear [his] name as soon as possible."
11 The maybe boring but oh so handsome, Nate Archibald
The character of Nate Archibald was perhaps one of the most boring characters on Gossip Girl. Off top of our heads, the only storyline we can think of is when he was hooking up with Elizabeth Hurley.
After Gossip Girl wrapped up, Crawford has had some roles in some smaller films and he also starred in the short lived Blood & Oil on ABC, which was a little like a soap opera, but in the best way possible. Crawford starred with and played love interests with actress Rebecca Rittenhouse on the show and it seems the two have been an item ever since. They were most recently seen together at the InStyle Golden Globes after-party being a bit cheeky together and just generally looking gorgeous together.
10 The girl who annoyed us all, Jenny Humphrey
The character of Jenny Humphrey, played wonderfully by Taylor Momsen, was a hard character to root for because she wasn't one of the leading ladies. Not to mention, she was such a wedge in the Chuck and Blair romance that you almost felt as though she was created to be an annoyance.
For Taylor Momsen, she didn't make it through all six seasons of the hit show, but it was mostly due to her pursuing a music career. She started her band The Pretty Reckless when she was "barely 16" and has been described as a rock star with a cross between Joan Jett and Debbie Harry. Her rock star look has sometimes been criticized as early on she would wear "stripper heels" and put duct tape over her chest, but with several successful tours and three studio albums under her belt, she believes the music speaks for itself.
9 The younger van der Woodsen, Eric
Eric van der Woodsen was always a character on Gossip Girl that you enjoyed from time to time (perhaps due to a little situational comedy), but mostly due to the fact that you felt sorry for him. For Connor Paulo, life after Gossip Girl hasn't seemed quite as fruitful as when he was starring as Serena's tag-along younger brother.
Paulo has been in a few guest starring roles on television shows and has been seen in a few smaller roles in a couple of movies. But the only standout thing that happened for the young actor post Gossip Girl was a reoccurring role on ABC's hit show Revenge, which lasted four seasons. Who knows, maybe this next pilot season will bring Connor Paulo and television together again for a long-lasting relationship.
8 Possibly the most annoying character to exist, Vanessa
We always had a hard time jumping on the Vanessa bandwagon on Gossip Girl because there was just something about her dialogue and interactions with the other characters that was basically the equivalent of nails on a chalk board. Now, this was nothing against actress Jessica Szohr, who played Vanessa, it was just all story, attitude and sometimes even what they made her wear—like that necklace.
For Jessica Szohr, you might say that she's had the most successful career post Gossip Girl fame, as far as quantity of acting jobs goes. She's been in several movies (some roles big, some smaller), and has been seen on several television shows, the most notable as of late being the award-winning Shameless. She told Cosmopolitan recently that she was "always a fan" of the show and was so excited to work on a TV show featuring so many "incredible actors."
7 One of the world's least favourite moms, Lily van der Woodsen
If you watched Gossip Girl, then you would be well-aware of what kind of a person and mother Lily van der Woodsen/Bass was. Off the top of our heads, she blackmailed a number of people, sent her son away, married for money, falsely accused a teacher of misconduct and so on. Get the picture? So, to put things lightly, she definitely wasn't giving anyone the warm and fuzzies.
For Kelly Rutherford though, she had a great career long before GG and continues to have one years later. She's found many a guest star roles on shows like Dynasty and Quantico and is soon to be a series regular on Pretty Little Liars' creator Marlene King's upcoming spin-off The Perfectionists. We seriously can't wait to see her in this role because if she's anything like Lily van der Woodsen, this casting is a match made in heaven.
6 The original waffle maker, Rufus Humphrey
Rufus Humphrey, father to Dan and Jenny, sometimes husband to Lily, waffle maker to all, was someone on Gossip Girl that existed for people to immediately fall in love with. We just gravitated towards him because of his big heart and generous spirit. But if you watched even one episode of the show that featured Rufus, you should be well-aware that sometimes he was just kind of annoying and a bit too in your face with his whole family oriented judgmental agenda (which perhaps speaks more to the writing than anything else).
It was hard to find some information as to what Matthew Settle has been up to since Gossip Girl ended as he hasn't really done too much other than a few TV movies. Maybe he's still taking a bit of vacation from acting after his GG days as he told Vulture right when the show was wrapping that there were "about 50 beaches calling" his name.
5 The girl you love to loathe, Georgina Sparks
Michelle Trachtenberg playing the role of Georgina Sparks on Gossip Girl was such a gift to the universe. Even though the show had Blair Waldorf playing the head snob of them all, Georgina Sparks just took things that much further and was always so much fun to watch. And we have to credit much of that viewing pleasure to the great Michelle Trachtenberg.
For Trachtenberg, there was plenty of work for her before Gossip Girl and there seemed to be lots afterwards too. She's lent her voice to hit long-running animated series Robot Chicken for several years now. And just last year, she posed with longtime friend and former co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar for a much-needed Buffy reunion photo. Who else here thinks that Dawn and Buffy Summers need to get their tails back on the small screen for a true television reunion?
4 Blair's true blue sidekick, Dorota
We're sure we speak for the majority here when we say that whenever Serena or Dan or Chuck or Blair got to be too much, it was the character of Dorota who brought a little light and humor to Gossip Girl. The role was played by Zuzanna Szadkowski.
As it turns out, Szadkowski has roots in New York City as she studied acting and got her MFA from Barnard College, so she's worked in the theatre for some time before, during and after her Gossip Girl stint. Since wrapping up, she's popped up on a few of our favorite shows like HBO's Girls and The Good Wife. A fun little seven degrees of separation for everyone—she actually went to high school with and is still BFF's with fellow NYC theatre and Girls actor, Andrew Rannells!
3 The con artist, Ivy Dickens
It was hard to figure out whether or not the character of Ivy Dickens (Charlie Rhodes at first), was pivotal enough to include here. But after checking out IMDB, we couldn't help but notice that she appeared in almost 40 episodes, which is quite a few in the world of television. Kaylee DeFer definitely made an impact in the warped little Gossip Girl universe.
Kaylee DeFer has actually pretty much dropped off the map in the acting arena, aside from a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother a few years back. It turns out that she basically gave up acting for the whole wife/mom game. According to The Sun, Kaylee married famous singer/songwriter Michael Fitzpatrick and shortly after became parents to a little boy. Sounds like a sweet little rock and roll life.
2 Was there anyone colder than Bart Bass?
Actor John Robert Burke did such a good job of playing the cold-hearted Bart Bass. So much so that you almost wouldn't know that he actually seems like a total sweetheart and all-around decent guy. His acting résumé certainly speaks to him being the kind of guy that people want to be around and work with because it is quite lengthy.
He's starred on a number of top television series since Gossip Girl wrapped like Law & Order: SVU, Person of Interest and Army Wives. One thing that makes this guy even hunkier is that he's actually a certified firefighter. He participated in search and rescue efforts after 9/11 and from there, joined the rescue force and years later, he actually became a captain. Talk about an impressive body of work all the way around!
1 The elusive Nelly Yuki
We're not even entirely sure why we're including actress Yin Chang in this little round-up, except for the fact that we can't say or think about the show Gossip Girl without saying the name Nelly Yuki (who she played). She certainly didn't appear on every episode, but she tended to show up for some of the fun story lines where Blair needed to get knocked down a peg or two.
Chang kept up with acting a bit after the show wrapped as she starred in a few shorts and TV movies, but what has kept her busy these past few years is hosting a creative and writing aspirations podcast called 88 Cups of Tea. A move from television and movies to a podcast — how very 2018 of you, Yin Chang!
References: cosmopolitan.com, hellogiggles.com, eonline.com, cinemablend.com, glamourmagazine.co.uk, okmagazine.com, tvguide.com, Cosmopolitan, vogue.co.au, The Perfectionists, vulture.com, ew.com, 88cupsoftea.com, imdb.com, thesun.co.uk, podcastingthemsoftly.com