Leighton Marissa Meester   [1986]

 

Leighton is an American actress and singer. She has been acting since 1999, when she was only 13. Her singing career started later, in 2007, with the release of two singles. She is best known for her role as Blair Waldorf in the long-running TV series “Gossip Girl”, which ran from 2007 until 2012.

Her strong film appearances are in drama, “Country Strong” in 2010, in the thriller, “The Roommate” in 2011, in the romantic comedy, “Monte Carlo” in 2011, and in the comedies, “That’s My Boy” in 2012 and “The Oranges” also  in 2012.

Meester’s TV debut was in 1999 playing a role in a “Law and Order” episode. That was followed with appearances in two more series. She got her first role in the movie “Hangman’s Curse” in 2003, at age 17. In that same year she also appeared in the TV series “Tarzan”. She then landed guest roles in such series as  ”Crossing Jordan”, “8 Simple Rules”, “7^th Heaven” in 2004, “Veronica Mars” in 2005, and later in “24”, and “Entourage”.

In 2005 she got her first regular role in the TV series “Surface”. In 2006 she appeared in two movies, “Flourish” and “Inside”. She also made a number of guest appearances, and ended up with her first lead role in the horror film “Drive-Thru”.

In 2007 she was cast in the teen drama, “Gossip Girl” as Blair Waldorf. She would continue in that role for the next six years.

Other TV series she was involved with were: “Boston Public” in 2001, “Family Affair” in 2002, “Monster Allergy” in 2006 and “CSI: Miami” in 2007.

Meester won three awards for her acting performances. In 2009 she won the Teen Choice Award: Choice TV Actress Drama, in 2010 she won another Teen choice Award, again for Choice TV Actress Drama, and in 2010 she also won the Hollywood Awards: Spotlight Award.

Meester was born in a half-way house in Fort Worth, Texas on April 9, 1986. Her parents were Douglas Meester and Constance Haas Meester. Her parents were serving jail sentences for marijuana smuggling. During her birth, and for three months after, her mother was able to stay in a half-way house. When her mother had to return to jail her grandmother took care of her. She has a brother, Alexander, who is 8 years younger.

Meester claims that despite her parents’ problems with the law she was raised in a normal household after her parents were released. She was raised on Marco Island, Florida. While in elementary and high school she was able to begin working as a model with the Wilhelmina modeling agency.

Meester made her acting debut at 13 as a murder victim’s friend on an episode on “Law and Order. A year later when she was 14 her family moved to Los Angeles, California. She attended Hollywood High School and Beverly Hills High School. She was able to graduate a year earlier, so she could devote more time to her acting profession.

 

REFERENCES

“Leighton Meester Likes Her Men ‘Dark and Bad’”, PEOPLE MAGAZINE, January 28, 2009

Wesley Morris, “Country Strong”, Movie Review, BOSTON GLOBE, January 7, 2011

Various web sources such as Wikipedia and IMDB

 

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