Leighton Meester may not have Blair Waldorf’s trust fund, but the Gossip Girl breakout built a very real—and very impressive—net worth on her own, no Upper East Side safety net required.
Reflecting on her early days as a struggling actress, Meester recalled, “I would be on the verge of thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can afford to do this.’ But every couple of months, I would get a job, pay rent, and keep auditioning until the next thing.”
All that changed at 20, when she was cast as Blair in The CW’s adaptation of Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl novels. “It was ultimately what I wanted,” she said of the role that made her rich, famous and forever associated with “the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite.”
“It was the goal to be on something that people saw—or, before that, even to just be on something.”
Keep reading to learn more about how Meester got her start and how much she’s earned thanks to Gossip Girl and beyond, and what her net worth is today.
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Meester was born April 9, 1986, while her parents were serving a federal prison sentence on marijuana-related charges, and spent her infancy with her grandparents in Marco Island, Fla. until her mother got released from jail 16 months later.
"My family has a crazy history. Probably the craziest I've ever heard of," she told Marie Claire in 2012. Still, she managed to see the bright side: "It wasn't uncomplicated, but I played outside, I went to the beach. There were happy, fun times."
It was during those carefree years that Meester expressed an interest in acting. "I watched a lot of TV, and it clicked one day that these people were acting," she said. "It sounded like the most fun thing ever." She started doing local theater at age 9, but her professional career actually started in modeling at 11, after her mother moved the family—Meester’s two brothers included—to New York City on the advice of a manager. Meester signed with the famed agency Wilhelmina and worked with brands like Ralph Lauren before returning to acting at 13 with a guest role on Law & Order. Later, her family relocated to Los Angeles, where she attended high school and landed small roles on shows including Entourage, 24 and 7th Heaven.
By December 2006, eager to return to the East Coast, Meester auditioned for Gossip Girl. “At the time, I wanted to move to New York, but I didn’t have a reason or any money,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “So when my agent sent me the Gossip Girl script, I thought Blair was perfect for me.” The show’s creators agreed, and the rest is television history.
Related: ‘Gossip Girl’ Star Admits He’s Never Rewatched the Series: ‘It’s Embarrassing’
Was Leighton Meester a model before acting?
Yes. By age 11, she was appearing in Ralph Lauren campaigns photographed by the likes of Bruce Weber and Sofia Coppola.
Like so many New York–based actresses, Meester’s first on-screen role was on Law & Order. She made her debut in 1999 at just 13 years old, appearing on the long-running NBC procedural while attending Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School.
When was Leighton Meester cast in Gossip Girl?
Meester started auditioning for the show in December 2006, and she was cast sometime shortly thereafter (the series premiered in September 2007). “Leighton was a blonde when she came in to read, but Blake [Lively] was the blonde, so we asked her to color her hair,” co-creator Josh Schwartz recalled in an oral history with THR. “A risky move on her part in the middle of pilot season, but she did a sink-rinse dye job to audition as a brunette.” The gamble paid off.
As of 2026, the most widely cited estimate places Meester’s combined net worth with her husband, actor Adam Brody (The O.C., Nobody Wants This), at around $22 million. Estimates of Meester’s individual net worth—separate from her husband’s finances—vary by source, but some put her personal fortune at roughly $15 million.
Related: All About Leighton Meester and Adam Brody's Marriage
How much did Leighton Meester make for Gossip Girl?
Meester’s exact salary for Gossip Girl hasn’t been publicly disclosed, but $60,000 per episode is an unconfirmed figure that often comes up online. Whatever her salary was, she likely earned less in the first season and then saw her pay rise incrementally as the show grew in popularity. For argument’s sake, if she did make $60,000 an episode across all 121 episodes of the series, she’d have earned $7.26 million by the end of the show’s six-season run.
When it comes to residuals, Netflix reportedly paid $600,000 per episode for the rights to Gossip Girl back in 2011, but the show’s stars probably didn’t see much of a cut. That was one of the major points of contention during the most recent SAG‑AFTRA strike in 2023: many actors believe the current system for residuals doesn’t fairly compensate performers in the streaming era.
For perspective, Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham once commented on her own streaming residuals (or lack thereof), saying, “There really are no residuals on Netflix. But I’ve been paid in love and appreciation.”
In 2011, Meester sued her mother, Constance Meester, over a dispute involving money the actress had been sending home to support her younger brother during treatment for a brain tumor. According to court documents, Meester had been providing about $7,500 a month to help cover his care, but she alleged that her mother was using the money for personal expenses, including cosmetic procedures, Botox and hair extensions.
Constance sued her daughter in response, claiming that she "sacrificed her happiness" to further Leighton's career and that the Gossip Girl star was breaching a binding verbal agreement by pulling her monthly allowance.
Meester’s suit asked the court to declare that she was not legally obligated to continue financially supporting her mother, and a judge ultimately ruled in the actress’s favor.
It’s unclear where Meester’s relationship with her mother stands today, but in the past she spoke warmly of her mom, which makes their falling out that much more shocking. “My mother is intimidatingly intelligent and, really, she knows everything, which is frustrating when you're an angst-y teenager,” Meester said prior to the lawsuits in 2011. “But now I appreciate her more than anything."
What did Leighton Meester do after Gossip Girl?
A lot! Since hanging up her headband, the actress has kept busy with roles in films like The Judge (2014), Life Partners (2014) and River Wild (2023), as well as TV series including Making History, Single Parents and How I Met Your Father. She also took the Broadway stage in 2014, starring in Of Mice and Men, and released her first and only studio album to date, Heartstrings, that same year.
She’s been especially busy as of late: In 2025 alone, Meester landed a starring role in Good Cop/Bad Cop, a CW comedy about siblings working as small-town detectives. She also appeared in recurring roles on Buccaneers, I Love LA, and Nobody Wants This, starring alongside her husband and the voice of Gossip Girl herself: Kristen Bell.
Related: 'Gossip Girl' Stars Kristen Bell and Leighton Meester Had 'Twinning' Red Carpet Looks
Off-screen, Meester and Brody are busy raising their daughter, Arlo, born in 2015, and a son, born in 2020, whose name they’ve kept private. “There’s been a lot of stuff I haven’t done because I want to be with them,” she said. “I don’t like being away from them. I’m sure a lot of people feel this way, but I’m especially not into it.”
Meester filmed several movies while she was still shooting Gossip Girl, including the 2010 musical drama Country Strong, in which she played an aspiring country singer opposite Gwyneth Paltrow's troubled, once-famous star attempting a comeback.
Meester’s salary for the role was never made public, but it was one of her first substantial film parts during the height of her Gossip Girl fame. Around the same time, she also starred in The Roommate, a Single White Female-inspired thriller led by Minka Kelly, and The Oranges, the indie comedy where she met her future husband.
Related: Chace Crawford Reveals Surprise ‘Gossip Girl’ Reunion at Beyonce Concert
What was Leighton Meester’s biggest box office hit?
Meester’s psychological thrillerThe Roommate remains her highest-grossing film to date among projects in which she had a leading role. Produced on a relatively modest budget of about $16 million, the 2011 movie went on to earn roughly $66 million worldwide.
The mom of two has released one studio album to date, Heartstrings. Prior to that, in 2009, she was featured on Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad,” which she followed up with singles "Somebody to Love" and "Your Love's a Drug" that same year.
"I just didn't feel like I sang that well in those songs," she told Bustleof her pop tracks. "That's why I stopped doing that style of songwriting, because I didn't feel really good when I would sing it.” Heartstrings, a self-written folk/indie record, was much more in line with her authentic sound.
Why did Leighton Meester quit music?
She didn’t. While she hasn’t released new music since Heartstrings, Meester has said she hasn’t ruled out a return. “Truly, I do think that I’m going to be working more on music in the next handful of months,” she told Harpers Bazaar in December 2025. “I really like writing and playing music, and it’s therapeutic to me.”
By the same token, it’s not something she does to make money. "I don't want to release anything for the sake of making money because that's just silliness," she said. "The reason I like to make music is because it's fun. If it were a pressure to have this whole other career it wouldn't be fun anymore."
How much did Leighton Meester lose in the L.A. Fires?
Meester and Brody were among the many Southern California residents affected by the devastating Pacific Palisades wildfires. In early January 2025, the couple’s Los Angeles home—a five‑bedroom, six‑bathroom property they bought in 2019 for about $6.5 million—was destroyed by the blaze.
While they’ve kept the details of their loss private, the couple likely saw countless possessions, family memories and sentimental items destroyed—things that can’t be replaced, even if insurance covers the financial hit.
Commenting on the experience, Meester said, “It’s a roller coaster because sometimes it’s all right, and then, sometimes, there are moments that are harder. The best thing I can do is just take it one step at a time. There are so many people who are in this position, so that’s not a positive. But that being said, I am not alone.”
Next: What Is Blake Lively’s Net Worth—And How Are Those Lawsuits Affecting It?
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