Spotted: Blair Waldorf time traveling. Gossip Girl is gone, but it definitely hasn't been forgotten. It's only been four years (yes, we know it feels like longer) since the show went off the air, but it feels like forever ago since Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, Chuck Bass, Dan Humphrey and Nate Archibald said their final goodbyes. But we've gotten quite a few updates to where the Gossip Girl cast is now, making us nostalgic for the good ol' days.
Turns out, most of them haven't really left. Blake Lively is in the news on a regular basis, so it's certainly hard to forget her. Others have been quietly appearing in movies and TV shows that you may just have missed. Some, unfortunately, have already went off the air, but, with a quick check of IMDb, it's clear 2016 is a big year for Gossip Girl fans who want to see a different side of their favorite cast. Even if it's a side that won't ever be as well-dressed as their teenage selves in the Upper East Side.
So, who's heading back to TV, who's kickstarting a music career and who seems to be on a break after a busy 2015? You'll have to read on to find out, XOXO.
Leighton Meester
Since Meester said goodbye to Blair Waldorf, she's starred in a few movies, appeared on Broadway, gotten married to The O.C. actor Adam Brody and had her first baby. Now, it's been announced that she's heading back to TV for the first time in a new time-travel series called Making History, starring The Mindy Project's Adam Pally. Meester is set to play Deborah, a colonial woman from 1775 in the series, created by the guys who gave you Last Man On Earth. Vulture reports that her character is a "self-educated colonial Queen Bee who's pushing for gender and racial equality in the 18th century." A Blair Waldorf for colonial times.
Penn Badgley
Penn Badgley is not Dan Humphrey, something the actor has been making very clear since the show ended. While he's done a few indie movies since saying goodbye to the show, including Greetings from Tim Buckley, and briefly appeared on the NBC miniseries The Slap, Badgley is making headlines currently for his band MOTHXR. The Brooklyn band, which Badgley fronts, just released their soulful debut album, Centerfold, but Badgley isn't saying goodbye to acting just yet. He is slated to appear in the 2016 thriller The Paper Store and Adam Green's Aladdin, which is a hyper-sensory modern take on the classic Arabian Nights, out in April. You'll have to watch the trailer to understand what you're really in for.
Blake Lively
Lively hasn't really gone away; she's still taking over magazine covers and red carpets with her impeccable style. She was last seen posting photos from a recording booth — but, don't worry, she's not becoming a pop star. Mainly because, as she revealed in the photo's caption, she can't really sing. She was in the studio for her upcoming movie, All I See Is You, which has her playing a woman who regains her sight and sees the problems in her marriage. While Lively's lifestyle website, Preserve, is done (at least for now), don't cry for her. She has two other films slated for this year, including an untitled Woody Allen project, which is in production, and The Shallows, where she plays a woman stranded by a great white shark that won't let her get back to shore.
Ed Westwick
Chuck Bass gets what he wants, because he's, well, Chuck Bass. But it's not that easy when you're Ed Westwick. The actor's first television project after Gossip Girl, Wicked City, was cancelled after three episodes. You can watch the remaining episodes on Hulu. But Westwick will be back in two new movies this year: the thriller Take Down, which is about a school for rich kids that gets taken hostage and Jekyll Island, which is about "white collar criminals are enlisted by the Federal government to thwart a cyber-attack that threatens to bankrupt the United States of America." Yeah, there's still a little Chuck Bass in Westwick.
Taylor Momsen
The girl who played Jenny Humphrey grew up before our eyes and started focusing more on music than acting — she hasn't appeared in anything since GG ended — as the lead singer of the hard rock band The Pretty Reckless. Momsen is currently working on new music with her band, which she's been teasing on social media. Unfortunately, she hasn't actually shared any of this new music, which would be the band's first since their 2014 album, Going to Hell, but she keeps teasing it on Instagram with the hashtag #newtprmusic, so it is coming.
Chace Crawford
Crawford's television soap opera Blood & Oil premiered in 2015, but was also, unfortunately, cancelled that same year after only 10 episodes. Crawford has kept himself busy, shooting three new films that are expected to be in theaters this year. According to Crawford's IMDb page, He is in the baseball movie Undrafted, the horror movie Eloise, and an untitled Warren Beatty project, which is reportedly a romantic drama about an affair director Howard Hughes had later in his life with a younger woman.
Jessica Szohr
Since Gossip Girl ended in 2012, Szohr has appeared in eight films, two TV movies, and four TV shows, including a recurring role on the second season of the Nick Jonas-starring series Kingdom. For now, she seems to be laying low, with nothing currently planned for 2016, at least according to Szohr's IMDb page. And I don't blame her. After all that working, the girl deserves a chance to catch her breath.
Matthew Settle
Everyone's favorite cool dad has been playing one in real life, recently welcoming his second child. But, he's also been working. This year, he's in the Indonesian action film Valentine and will return to TV with a role on an episode of the CBS series Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.
Kelly Rutherford
Rutherford has unfortunately found herself in the news, but not for her work. Rutherford was embroiled in a six-year custody battle with her ex-husband over their two children, in which she lost sole custody in 2015 after being accused of kidnapping. Rutherford broke her silence about losing custody and only being able to visit them in France where they live in an interview with People from earlier this year, saying, "Children need both parents. You do not want to make them suffer. I hope that this story be an example to others." Career-wise, she appeared in an episode of The Mysteries Of Laura last year and starred in the 2015 TV movie, Night Of The Wild.
Connor Paolo
After saying goodbye to Eric van der Woodsen, he joined the cast of Revenge as Declan Porter, who was not long for that world. Since then, he's stayed away from TV, but appeared in a few films, including the upcoming horror-thriller Friend Request. Be careful who you accept is probably a good tagline for this one. And, right now, he's very into supporting Bernie Sanders.
Zuzanna Szadkowski
Szadkowski played Dorota, one of the most (if not the only) lovable characters on Gossip Girl. Since GG ended, Szadkowski continued to play a helpful character on the Cinemax series, The Knick, and appeared on The Mentalist and a couple of episodes of Girls. To keep up with what else Szadkowski is up to, follow her on Twitter, where she shouts out her friends like Girls star Andrew Rannells, who she's known since high school, Broadway shows and favorite things about New York to just make you miss Dorota even more.
While some couldn't even imagine these actors and actresses being anything but their Gossip Girl counterparts, in the years since the show ended, they've managed to show that there is life after the Upper East Side.
Image: The CW
