Actress immortalized as Blair in "Gossip Girl": Who is Leighton Meester?

Her full name is Leighton Marissa Meester, she was born on April 9, 1986 in Fort Worth, Texas. She was born to her mother, Constance Lynn, a writer, and father, Douglas Jay Meester, a real estate broker. Meester has an older brother named Douglas Logan Meester and a younger brother named Alexander "Lex" Meester.

At the time of her birth, Meester was initially cared for by her mother for three months in a nursing home, with her parents imprisoned for a crime they were involved in. Later, she was taken care of by her father by her grandparents. Growing up in Marco Island, Florida, Meester's parents separated in 1992.

Moving to New York City with her siblings and mother at the age of 11, Meester enrolled at the Professional Children's School and began working as a model. As her first job, she took part in a Ralph Lauren campaign shot by photographer Bruce Weber and worked with photographer Sofia Coppola. She has also been seen in commercials for the game Tamagotchi and the drug brand Clearasil she. Additionally, she has modeled for the brand Limited Too with actress Amanda Seyfried.

She made her acting debut in 1999 as Alyssa Turner in an episode of the police procedural and legal drama television series "Law & Order". She later made her way through the horror thriller "Hangman's Curse" by Frank Peretti. In 2003, she had a regular main role in the adventure-drama television series "Tarzan".

Later, Justine Chapin appeared in the comedy-drama television series "Entourage", which started on HBO. She then followed up with a role as Carrie Bishop in the teen dark mystery drama television series "Veronica Mars" created by Rob Thomas. In 2005, she appeared in the main cast as Savannah Barnett in the science fiction television series "Surface" created by Jonas and Josh Pate.

In 2007, Meester took the lead role as Mackenzie Carpenter in the black comedy slasher film "Drive-Thru" directed and written by Brendan Cowles and Shane Kuhn. For the movie, she recorded her song "Inside the Black". Later in the year, she got one of the lead roles as Blair Waldorf in the teen drama television series "Gossip Girl" based on the novel series of the same name. Meester, who had a great break both for the series and for herself, came to the fore with the clothes of her character in the series. The series, which ran for six seasons and 120 episodes, earned multiple nominations and 18 Teen Choice Awards.

Meanwhile, Meester made her debut as Samantha "Sam" Willows in the supernatural horror television movie "The Haunting of Sorority Row" directed by Bert Kish. Later, she starred in the drama film "Remember the Daze" directed by Jess Manafort. The following year, she appeared as Jaynie Hansen in the slasher movie "Killer Movie" directed by Jeff Fisher. In 2009, she partnered with brand Reebok to model her new sneakers.

At that time, she released his song "Birthday" featuring the band Awesome New Republic. Later that month, she signed a recording contract with the record label Universal Republic. After that, Meester sang the vocals for Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad", which peaked at number seven on the charts. Later in the year, her first official song, "Somebody to Love," was released, featuring singer Robin Thicke.

Her second song, "Your Love's a Drug", was released on March 30, 2010 and featured on singer Stephen Jerzak's single "She Said". In 2010, she starred in the romantic comedy crime film "Date Night" directed by Shawn Levy. The film received mixed reviews and grossed heavily at the box office. In the same year, she appeared in the romantic comedy film "Going the Distance" directed by Nanette Burstein. The film had both mixed reviews and moderate box office success.

Later, she starred with Gwyneth Paltrow and Garrett Hedlund in the music drama "Country Strong", directed by Shana Feste. She received a Teen Choice Awards nomination for her performance. She also sang "Words I Couldn't Say" by Rascal Flatts and "A Little Bit Stronger" by Sara Evans for the film.

In 2010, Meester signed on to be the spokesperson for Herbal Essences hair products and later joined and participated in the "Save the Children" organization of Bulgari brand together with Isabella Rossellini and Maribel Verdú. Later, she posed in a beauty campaign for the Korean brand "eSpoir". She was chosen by Vera Wang as the face of her fragrance "Lovestruck" in 2011 and took part in a campaign for her follow-up fragrance, "Lovestruck Floral Rush". In 2011, she was chosen by the Italian fashion house Missoni as the face of their spring/summer 2011 campaign.

Meester next played Rebecca Evans, an obsessed, bipolar woman in the thriller "The Roommate" directed by Christian E. Her performance in the film, which received mostly negative reviews, was praised and a healthy success at the box office. In 2011, she played the character of Meg Kelly in the adventure romantic comedy film "Monte Carlo", directed by Thomas Bezucha, with Selena Gomez and Katie Cassidy. The film, which received mixed reviews from critics, was met with moderate financial gains at the box office.

Later in the year, she appeared in the romantic comedy-drama "The Oranges" directed by Julian Farino with Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Alia Shawkat and Adam Brody. The film, which was met with mixed reviews from critics, did not find success at the box office.

She then appeared with Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Milo Ventimiglia in the satirical black comedy film "That's My Boy", which was released in June 2012 and directed by Sean Anders. The film, which received mostly negative reviews, was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards and was a box office failure. In August 2012, Meester appeared in Wilmer Valderrama and Vanessa Curry's music video for house music group The Nomads' "Addicted to Love".

In April 2014, she co-starred with Gillian Jacobs in the comedy drama "Life Partners" directed by Susanna Fogel. The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, resulted in mixed reviews. She made her Broadway debut with James Franco and Chris O'Dowd in the stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men." She then starred in the comedy-drama film "The Judge", directed by David Dobkin, with Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall and Vera Farmiga. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film was a healthy success at the box office, resulting in multiple awards and nominations.

That same year, Meester played the girlfriend of Green Day's singer Billie Joe Armstrong in Frank Whaley's drama "Like Sunday, Like Rain". She won an award at the 2014 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival for her performance. She then acted alongside Ben Barnes in the crime drama film "By the Gun" directed by James Mottern. Meester appeared as the face of the French brand Naf Naf's 2014 fall/winter collection.

On September 9, 2014, it was reported that Meester's self-written and Jeff Trott-produced debut album, "Heartstrings," will be released on October 28 via her label, Hotly Wanting. The following year, Meester toured in support of the album and later appeared in advertisements for fashion brand Jimmy Choo. She also appeared as one of 100 famous narrators in the documentary film "Unity" written and directed by Shaun Monson.

In March 2016, she appeared in the Fox comedy series "Making History" as Deborah Revere, a colonial woman from 1775 and the daughter of American craftsman Paul Revere. The series, which was canceled after a nine-episode season, garnered generally positive reviews. In the following years, she co-starred with Jai Courtney, Nat Wolff and Finn Wittrock in the crime drama "Semper Fi" directed by Henry-Alex Rubin.

Later, she appeared with Taran Killam in ABC's TV series "Single Parents", which premiered in September 2018 and was canceled after two seasons. The following year, Meester guest-starred as Laura Huggins in the episode "Lasting Impressions" of the science fiction comedy-drama television series "The Orville". In 2022, she appeared in the recurring role of Meredith in the sitcom "How I Met Your Father", which premiered on Hulu.

In 2022, she starred in the thriller "The Weekend Away", based on the novel of the same name and directed by Kim Farrant. The film, which received positive reviews from critics, entered Netflix's most watched at the time of its release. In the same year, she voiced a role in the animated fantasy adventure comedy "My Dad's Dragon" directed by Nora Twomey. Released on Netflix on November 11, 2022, the film was met with generally positive reviews.

Private life

In 2010, Meester met actor Adam Brody. The couple got engaged in November 2013 and got married in 2014. The couple had their first daughter born in 2015 and a son born in 2020. Meester currently lives in Los Angeles with her family.

Meester is involved in many charity campaigns and charity funds. Since 2017, Meester has been volunteering with a nonprofit called "Feeding America". Also, Meester has been listed on the lists of many magazines featuring the most beautiful women in the world. She was included in the "100 Most Beautiful" list by People magazine in 2008. In the same year, she was ranked first in the "Autumn TV's Hottest Stars" list by FHM magazine.

Meester has also appeared on many magazine and newspaper covers and editorials throughout her career. Among them; Flaunt, Shape, Allure, Teen Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, CosmoGirl, InStyle, L'Officiel and more.