Much fuss has been made about Leighton Marissa Claire Meester’s family history, with tabloid headlines claiming the girl who would go on to play Upper East Side princess Blair Waldorf was born in jail. The truth behind the gossip is that Leighton was born at Baylor All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 9, 1986; her mother Connie was allowed out of jail where she was serving a sentence for her involvement in a marijuana smuggling ring and stayed with newborn Leighton for three months in a halfway house.
Connie served 16 months of her sentence and was then released, joining Leighton and her older brother Douglas, who were staying with their grandmother. Growing up in Marco Island, Florida, Leighton had a “normal childhood.” She and her mother have always been close and the actress calls her one of her best friends. A self-described late bloomer, Leighton decided to become an actress early on, performing in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. The family spent some time in New York City, where Leighton’s mother was supportive of her burgeoning career, but not pushy. Signing with the Wilhelmina modeling agency, Leighton was in a Ralph Lauren campaign and photographed by Sofia Coppola before landing her first on-camera role in a 1999 episode of Law & Order. The family moved around Manhattan, living in some sketchy apartments while Connie made a living waitressing and writing screenplays.
Moving from New York to L.A., Leighton attended Beverly Hills High School and felt like a fish out of water. She was the target of the Blair Waldorfs of her school, as she told Vanity Fair. Leighton’s career continued to build as she landed role after role on television series, most notably Tarzan, 7th Heaven, 24, Veronica Mars, House, Shark, and 12 episodes of the short-lived NBC sci-fi series Surface. In 2007, Leighton was in the movie Drive-Thru opposite future Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley. Playing a singer in that role, she got another chance to perform as Justine Chapin in season 1 of Entourage, a Britney Spears–inspired character who returned in season 5 and sang a duet with Tony Bennett. Leighton described that experience as really awesome.
When Leighton first found out about the role of Blair on Gossip Girl, “I loved the character and the script, and I just knew.” But Leighton was a blonde, and after auditioning multiple times, some of the producers couldn’t get past the hair — Blair’s a brunette. (Leighton’s hair is naturally a dirty blonde/light brown color.) Stephanie Savage asked her to dye her hair and Leighton obliged — except she did it herself and it turned green. Her hairstylist roommate fixed it, Leighton did her final audition, and the part was hers.
Her portrayal of Blair is successful because she not only does bitchy so well, but she also shows B’s vulnerable side. The actress remembers her initial direction from the producers on how to approach the role. The character’s complexity is what drew Leighton to Blair; it’s not often a young woman on television is portrayed as more than one-dimensional.
With her celebrity gained from Gossip Girl, Leighton has not only graced several covers of magazines but landed endorsement deals, becoming the face of a Reebok ad campaign. She also uses her status to do charitable work, raising money for women’s shelters and campaigning against domestic violence. While Leighton doesn’t talk about her personal life in the press, the press loves to talk about her personal life. Leighton, who’s been seen at various events and on set with Sebastian Stan (who plays Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl and starred in Kings) since July 2008, has described the type of man she’s drawn to: “I think guys who are rebels and make their own rules are appealing. I don’t want to tame anybody. I want them to be dark and bad.”
Though she never wears hairbands, Leighton does take style clues from her onscreen counterpart, telling Teen Vogue she’s realized she doesn’t “have to be shy about dressing up.” When she’s not being Blair, Leighton is hard at work on her other passion: she’s recording an album for Universal. As she launches her music career, she is also keen to follow in the footsteps of accomplished actresses. In between seasons of Gossip Girl, Leighton has a few film projects on the go.
She plays the babysitter for parents Steve Carell and Tina Fey in Date Night, she stars in a thriller called The Roommate, and she’s reportedly in talks to star in Beastly, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Not one for partying, Leighton aims to keep focused on her career and not on being a tabloid headline.