Leighton Meester

LEIGHTON MEESTER

Date of Birth: April 9, 1986

Cover girl, style icon and acclaimed actress all in one, Leighton Meester is a showbiz jack of all trades, most notably stealing scenes in the small screen hit Gossip Girl, then moving to the big screen with roles alongside A-list stars in films like Date Night (2010) with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, Monte Carlo (2011) with Selena Gomez, The Roommate (2011) with Minka Kelly and Country Strong starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Garrett Hedlund. She can also be seen alongside Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg in the 2012 film That's My Boy. Did we mention she sings too?

While many young actresses only play the girl from the wrong side of the tracks on the screen, Meester actually lived it. Born while her mother was serving a prison stint, Meester grew up in Marco Island, Florida, where she first took the stage in local plays and small productions. Destined for something bigger, Meester moved to New York City with her mother at age 11, where she found jobs as a model and landed a small role on the TV series Law & Order.

With a taste for the limelight it wasn't long before California beckoned the blossoming actress, leading Meester to the West Coast for roles on 7th Heaven, 24 and Entourage, before getting her big break on Gossip Girl. As the privileged heiress Blair Waldorf, Meester's fame rose, with the young star hitting everything from the pages of Teen Vogue and Rolling Stone magazine, to winning Teen Choice Awards two years in a row. Cruising on the success of her small screen breakthrough, Meester also launched a successful pop career, hitting the charts with the singles "Somebody to Love," "Your Love is a Drug" and "Good Girls Gone Bad."

In 2011, Meester took legal action against her own mother for allegedly taking the money she sent for her brother's healthcare costs and using it for cosmetic procedures instead. Her mother then made a cross-claim suing Meester for breach of contract and physical abuse. Her mother later dropped the $3 million claim for damages.

Much like her small screen counterpart Blair Waldorf, Meester's off-camera romances have been chock full of intrigue. After dating and ditching Gossip Girl co-star Sebastian Stan, Meester was rumored to be romancing everybody from on-screen Gossip Girl star Penn Badgely to Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson. All these rumors come in spite of Meester's comments to Glamour UK that she easily tires of men, and that she has, "hated every boyfriend I've had." In February 2014, she tied the knot with boyfriend Adam Brody.

Meester has fronted many advertising campaigns throughout her rising success including Reebok, Nikon Coolpix and Herbal Essences. She was also recently chosen by designer Vera Wang as the face of her latest fragrance, Lovestruck. In 2011, she was ranked #5 in Glamour magazine's Most Glamorous Celebrities of 2011 and has appeared on Maxim's Hot 100 list in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.