Gossip Girl: where are the original cast now?

Blake Lively starred as the UES's ultimate effortless cool girl, Serena van der Woodsen.

As one half of the world's most photogenic couple (with Ryan Reynolds) and the original instigator of the phrase 'hair goals' (probably), Blake Lively needs no re-introduction. Since starring as Serena van der Woodsen, Blake has starred in The Age of Adaline, launched an ill-fated, 'Goop'-esque lifestyle site Preserve and welcomed three young daughters. She also starred in shark horror flick The Shallows and put us off surfing forever.

Leighton Meester was Blair Waldorf, the queen of the Upper East Side.

Now that she's no longer playing the Upper East Side's premier ice queen, multi-talented Leighton has taken time to work on her music career, and released her debut LP, Heartstrings, in 2014. Her Broadway debut came in 2014, when she starred in the highly acclaimed adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, opposite James Franco and Chris O'Dowd. She started dating The OC star Adam Brody in 2013, meaning that in the ultimate teen drama crossover, Blair Waldorf and Seth Cohen are now a real life item. The couple married in 2014 and have two children, and Leighton is returning with Netflix series The Weekend Away.

Brit actor Ed Westwick starred as charming, but slightly evil, bad boy, Chuck Bass

Ed starred opposite future Oscar nominee Felicity Jones in underrated 'snowmantic comedy' Chalet Girl. He dabbled in Shakespeare as Tybalt in the 2013 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (alongside Douglas Booth and Hailee Steinfeld), and starred as a serial killer in short-lived US crime drama series Wicked City. Ed reportedly auditioned to play Han Solo in the much-anticipated Star Wars spin-off feature, but faced competition from the likes of Taron Egerton, Dave Franco and Alden Ehrenreich. He's also been seen in thrillers Jekyll Island and Take Down.

Really, what is there to say about Lonely Boy?

Dan Humphrey has carved a niche as the ultimate hipster, and is regularly spotted around Brooklyn rocking a beard of varying lengths. After splitting up with on-screen and real life girlfriend Blake Lively, Penn went on to date actress and musician Zoe Kravitz from 2011 to 2013. These days, when he's not picking holes in that huge Gossip Girl reveal ('It doesn't make sense at all. It wouldn't have made sense for anybody,' he told People last year), he's making music with his band MOTHXR (note the edgy spelling) and playing everyone's favourite serial killer (yes, this is problematic), Joe, on Netflix's You. The third season will be here soon.

Chace Crawford was the Upper East Side's pretty boy, Nate Archibald.

Since graduating from Gossip Girl, Chace Crawford has starred in a handful of films, including 2012's What To Expect When You're Expecting and indie comedy Mountain Men. He starred in short-lived soap opera Blood & Oil (which was billed as the new Dallas) and landed a role opposite Amber Heard in comedy What's The Point, written by Lake Bell. Most recently, he delighted superhero fans in The Boys.

Jenny Humphrey, AKA sweet-teen-turned-fashion-nightmare, was played by IRL rocker, Taylor Momsen.

Taylor Momsen quit the show after just four seasons, with the aim of focusing on her music career. Her band The Pretty Reckless released their first single, the cheerily titled 'Makes Me Wanna Die,' in 2010, which was followed by a debut album, Light Me Up. The group supported everyone's favourite angsty opera-rock gang Evanescence on tour in 2011, and released follow up album Going To Hell in 2014. Pop trivia fans will be interested to learn that TPR's fourth single, 'Kill Me,' was the last song to feature in the final episode of Gossip Girl Well, it was either going to be that or Rufus' one hit wonder, 'Everytime'...

Kelly Rutherford was Serena's mum, Lily.

Since Gossip Girl came to an end, Kelly Rutherford has concentrated on small screen roles, with recurring parts in US legal drama Reckless and the critically acclaimed series Quantico. The actress was also embroiled in a long-running, globe-spanning custody battle over her son and daughter with her ex-husband, German businessman Daniel Giersch, which she eventually lost in December 2015.

Rufus, dad to Dan and Jenny, was the ultimate on-screen dad crush.

Since hanging up Rufus Humphrey's leather jacket (and unplugging the waffle maker, probs), Matthew Settle has starred in a succession of intriguingly named films - Ouija_,_ Marshall the Miracle Dog or A Sister's Nightmare, anyone? After the star posted a series of sweet photos of himself with on-screen on-off love interest Kelly Rutherford, Gossip Girl fans went into meltdown at the thought of an IRL romance - #LilyAndRufus even ended up trending on Twitter. In a mix up worthy of one of the show's plotlines, Matthew isn't actually dating Kelly - he has a daughter with his long-term girlfriend Maria Alfonsin. Kelly and Matthew have remained firm friends since their time on the show, and the actor publicly lent his support during Kelly's difficult custody battle.

Vanessa is probably the main reason you still can't cope with hipsters. She was on the show for a few seasons before announcing that she'd be 'studying abroad' for a while.

Since leaving the Upper East Side behind, Jessica has had roles in films like The Internship and Ted 2, and most recently starred in Kingdom, a TV drama about a family of MMA fighters (which, bizarrely, also starred Nick Jonas). She's also a long-time member of Taylor Swift's squad - her friendship CV boasts a cameo in the singer's '22' video and* an appearance in Tay's Fourth of July 'family portrait' Instagram from 2014 (seated next to Lena Dunham and model Jessica Stam, no less).

Dorota was the real MVP of Gossip Girl.

Zuzanna has since landed roles in TV dramas like Loserville, The Knick and The Good Wife, and even swapped the Upper East Side for (gasp!) Brooklyn with a recurring role in the fourth season of Lena Dunham's Girls. And while this is all well and good, we were happiest to learn that Zuzanna is still best of pals with Leighton Meester in real life - speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, Leighton's husband Adam Brody described the actress as 'one of my wife's best friends.' Blair and Dorota - the ultimate in squad goals?

Michelle Trachtenburg was New York's arch-manipulator, Georgina Sparks.

Michelle Trachtenberg has had a handful of TV appearances and according to her Twitter bio, is currently 'an actress/producer/writer/believer in Unicorns.' In a bizarre twist of fate, bringing together fictional New York teen royalty with actual British royalty, Michelle is apparently pals with Princess Eugenie. She was regularly photographed with the Princess after she moved to the US in 2013, and posted a picture to Instagram with '[her] girl E,' who showed her around a gallery in downtown LA. Even Gossip Girl herself couldn't have predicted this...

Connor Paolo is Serena's little brother, Eric.

Connor swapped Gossip Girl for the equally melodramatic Revenge in 2011, and played Declan in the first two seasons of the show. Since then, he's starred in horror flick Friend Request (think The Ring for the Facebook generation), an apocalyptic college drama called Like Lambs, and a TV show based on Nineties action-comedy Rush Hour. Oh, and he's still friends with Little J in real life - he starred in the video for The Pretty Reckless's single 'My Medicine,' and regularly attends their gigs to support his pal Taylor.

In case you forgot: Tripp wasn't exactly the most crucial character in the Gossip Girl canon, but he was Nate's equally photogenic cousin who ended up having an affair with Serena in season three.

Aaron has arguably ended up as one of the show's low-key success stories. He gave a strong performance as student revolutionary Enjolras in the big screen adaptation of Les Miserables (opposite Eddie Redmayne and Hugh Jackman), and starred as Danny Zuko in Fox's production of Grease! Live. He's nominated for a Tony for Moulin Rouge: the only actor in his category.