| Leighton Meester | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born: | April 9, 1986 Fort Worth, Texas, USA |
| Role: | Debbie Pendleton |
- "When I found out, I was like 'Oh, man!' And then I realized it was going to be such an awesome death, I was like 'I can't resist! I can't resist!' It was wonderful. Very dramatic and very challenging."
- — Leighton Meester on the fate of her character on 24 (IGN, 2007)
Leighton Meester (born April 9, 1986; age 38) is an actress, singer and songwriter. She played Debbie Pendleton, the girlfriend of Behrooz Araz during Day 4. Her surname is Dutch for "master" or "teacher". She is best known for her role as Blair Waldorf on The CW series Gossip Girl.
Biography
Leighton Meester was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Constance and Douglas Meester. Although she has lived most of her life in Los Angeles and New York, she was raised in Marco Island, Florida. During her childhood, she was under the care of her grandmother, while her mother served a prison sentence. Meester got interested in acting at the age of nine by playing a citizen of Emerald City in a local production of The Wizard of Oz.
Two years later at age 11, Leighton and her mother moved to New York, where she began to model with the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency, and booked a Ralph Lauren campaign shot by Bruce Weber and working with photographer/director Sofia Coppola. Leighton moved to Los Angeles when she was 14 and attended Beverly Hills High School and Hollywood High School.
Meester made her television acting debut in 1999 on an episode of Law & Order (with Benjamin Bratt). Over the course of her career, she has appeared in other TV shows such as Crossing Jordan (with Ravi Kapoor, Lucinda Jenney, Natalija Nogulich, and Glenn Morshower), Entourage (with Kevin Dillon), Numb3rs (with Navi Rawat and Peter MacNicol), CSI: Miami (with Marco Sanchez), and Shark (with Evan Handler, Carlos Gomez, and Bruce Nozick). In 2007, Meester gained recognition when she was cast as one of the leads in the CW teen drama series Gossip Girl. She remained with the show through all its duration, until 2012.
Leighton also began her film career in 2003 by appearing in the movie Hangman's Curse (with Tom Wright). She has also appeared in Inside (with Larry Sullivan), Drive-Thru, The Haunting of Sorority Row, Killer Movie (with Paul Wesley), Date Night (with Jimmi Simpson), The Roommate (with Tomas Arana), Monte Carlo, Country Strong, and The Judge (with Jamison Haase).
Leighton is also a singer, releasing her first album in 2014.
Role on 24
Meester played the role of Debbie Pendleton on Season 4 of 24. She was a Guest star on the show, appearing in a total of 4 episodes. According to her profile on TV.com, Meester was a big fan of Kiefer Sutherland, even before guest-starring on the show.[1] On a 2007 interview with IGN, she said that the fate of her character was "very dramatic and very challenging", but that it would be an "awesome death". She also went on to praise her co-star Shohreh Aghdashloo, calling her one of her "favorite actresses".[2]
24 credits
Selected filmography
- Any Tom, Dick, or Harry (2015)
- The Judge (2014)
- That's My Boy (2012)
- Monte Carlo (2011)
- The Roommate (2011)
- Country Strong (2010)
- Date Night (2010)
- Killer Movie (2008)
- The Haunting of Sorority Row (2007)
- Drive-Thru (2007)
- Inside (2006)
- Flourish (2006)
- Hangman's Curse (2003)
- The Jackalope (2003)
- The Big Wide World of Laemke (2003)
Television appearances
- Making History (2017)
- Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
- Shark (2007)
- CSI: Miami (2007)
- House M.D. (2006)
- Numb3rs (2006)
- Secrets of a Small Town (2006)
- Surface (2005-2006)
- Veronica Mars (2005)
- 8 Simple Rules (2005)
- 24 (2005)
- Entourage (2004-2008)
- North Shore (2004)
- 7th Heaven (2004)
- Crossing Jordan (2004)
- Tarzan (2003)
- Family Affair (2002)
- Boston Public (2001)
- Law and Order (1999)
