The youngest of the Gossip Girl cast, Taylor Michel Momsen was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 26, 1993. Her dad, a VP of an electronics company, and her mom Colette, a homemaker, had another daughter Sloane in 1996. Very early on, Taylor showed a talent for performing, landing a Shake ’N’ Bake commercial when she was just three years old. Taylor enjoyed acting but doesn’t have clear memories of her early work.
After a small role in the Dennis Hopper film The Prophet’s Game, Taylor was cast as Cindy Lou Who in 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and received a Young Artist Award nomination for her performance. Grinch director Ron Howard noted that Taylor once pointed out to him that he’d just cut a line of dialogue crucial to the story.
Her little sister Sloane had a cameo with Taylor in The Grinch as well as in 2002’s We Were Soldiers. Taylor played Gretel in Hansel & Gretel and the president’s daughter in Spy Kids 2. Like her TV big brother Penn, Taylor was cast in a failed WB show; hers was called Misconceptions and it never aired. In 2006, she played Samantha Wallace in the third Shiloh film, Saving Shiloh, an adaptation of the novel written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.
Taylor was cast in Gus Van Sant’s 2007 film Paranoid Park as Jennifer, a popular cheerleader desperate to be accepted by her peers.
That same year, Taylor landed another role as a Jennifer, Gossip Girl’s Jenny Humphrey. On her very first day on set at Gossip Girl, Taylor made a memorable impression. It took her a while to get used to the crowds who gather to watch them film Gossip Girl, or to people recognizing her on the street. Managing work and school is made easier by attending the Professional Performing Arts High School along with Connor Paolo.
Her life got even busier in June 2008 when she signed to IMG Models. Addressing media concern that she’s too skinny and may have an eating disorder, Taylor said, “I’m just kind of naturally thin.” Taylor’s also been singing her whole life.
She sang on the album School’s Out! Christmas (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “One Small Voice”) as well as in the Grinch movie. Her taste has matured with her, as she revealed to ElleGirl in 2007. Taylor’s been working on an album (due out in fall ’09 from Interscope) with her band, the Pretty Reckless, and has taught herself to play guitar.
Described by Chace Crawford as “pretty much perfect,” Taylor now lives in the city with her family and her white Maltese dog Petal (who has black “punk rock” streaks on her head) and still wears a pink tutu every year on her birthday, a tradition since she was three.