Whatever Happened To Jessica Szohr From Gossip Girl?

In 2007, the first iPhone hit the market, "Spider-Man 3" absolutely smashed the box office, and chunky highlights were all the rage. (Feel old yet?) That same year, "Gossip Girl" premiered on the CW. The show, which was based on the book series of the same name, changed actor Jessica Szohr's trajectory for the better.  

Before she scored the role of Vanessa Abrams (aka Dan Humphrey's friend that fans loved to hate), Szohr booked a handful of small TV gigs. However, life in Hollywood just hadn't clicked for her the way she hoped it would. As she told The Untitled Magazine in January 2016, "I had a hard time. I was very lonely when I first moved. It was hard to meet people, everything's so spread out, I wasn't in college. I wasn't old enough to go out." Just as she was ready to pack up and head back home to Wisconsin, a visit from her mom and a friend inspired her to keep at it. "They sat me down and were like ... 'We don't think you should leave, we think you should stay out here a little longer,'" she said. "Three weeks later, I booked 'Gossip Girl.'"

You may be wondering what Szohr has been up to since "Gossip Girl" came to an end in 2012. The long and short of it is that she's stayed busy. From her many on-screen projects to high profile relationships and major feats in her personal life, here's what's been going on in Szohr's world.

Jessica Szohr got her start as a model and transitioned into acting in 2003. As luck would have it, her breakthrough role came about because she was at the right place at the right time. As she told The Untitled Magazine in 2016, "My manager called and she was like, 'What did you do this weekend?' I was like, 'Went to a movie, went to a barbecue... Why? What's up?' She was like, 'There's this pilot for 'Gossip Girl' that got picked up and you happened to be at the creator's house. They want you to come in and meet tomorrow.'" 

While Szohr's role was initially supposed to be short-lived, that plan — and her whole career path — shifted pretty suddenly. "I was only supposed to go and do three, four episodes," she recalled to Teen Vogue in 2022. "When they asked me to stay and be a series regular, you become friends with the cast and you're living in the city and then the show kind of blew up. A lot of different things came with all of that — fun, exciting, scary, and crazy."

Szohr was introduced several episodes into Season 1 and remained a core part of the ensemble. Alas, she ultimately parted ways with "Gossip Girl" after Season 4. Though she never returned as a full-fledged cast member, she did have a small cameo in the series finale.  

While many fans couldn't stand "Gossip Girl" character Vanessa Abrams, Hollywood sure seemed to take a liking to Jessica Szohr. In 2013, the year after "Gossip Girl" concluded, she secured another major TV role. 

Szohr was set to star in a Fox drama called "The List." In it, she would play Special Agent Natalie Voss and star opposite Michael Peña. This was a huge deal for her career... until Fox decided to pass on the pilot. This, of course, happens all of the time in the world of television, but this outcome undoubtedly came as a disappointment for the actor.

While "The List" did not pan out the way she hoped, Szohr kept hustling throughout 2013. That year, she appeared in a few movies, had a guest spot on a television show, and even popped up in a music video with her pal Taylor Swift. The music video, which was for the hit single "22," featured scenes of Swift hanging out with a group of friends. Szohr, who was one of the friends, had a fab time making the video. "We were just in Malibu and we got to eat pizza all day and then dance around and jump on the trampoline," she told Us Weekly. "It was just a fun, free Saturday."

As of this writing, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers is still in a relationship with model Mallory Edens. However, before the two got together, Rodgers dated many famous women, including Olivia Munn, Danica Patrick, Shailene Woodley, and Jessica Szohr. Rodgers and Szohr reportedly got together in 2011 while Szohr was still on "Gossip Girl," but they didn't date for long.

Then, Szohr and Rodgers reportedly reconnected a few years later. After they were spotted together at a party for the movie "That Awkward Moment," an insider dished to Us Weekly in February 2014 about their relationship. "They got back together over the holidays. They spent New Years together with a bunch of mutual friends. They broke up because her schedule was crazy for awhile and they just couldn't stay together in that situation but now they have been spending their free time together and things feel good. They fell right back into it," they said.

Neither Szohr nor Rodgers have spoken publicly about their relationship. Whatever did or didn't happen, it seems like they remained on good terms: In December 2017, the "Gossip Girl" alum attended her former beau's birthday celebration.

 In 2013, Jessica Szohr played a stripper named Marielena in the Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy "The Internship." In a 2016 chat with The Untitled Magazine, she shared that she almost passed on the movie entirely because she wasn't sure about the role. "When I read it I was like, 'I'm not going to go in there naked and topless,' and basically, Shawn Levy was like, 'What if you're fully covered? Will you come and do it?'" she said. 

That was good enough to get Szohr on board. However, the role proved to be even more challenging than she anticipated. "I literally told my mom, I give strippers much more credit because that's very hard [to do]," she added. 

The following year brought a handful of appearances in films, and by 2015, the "Gossip Girl" star had landed several television spots, including a recurring role on the USA Network medical drama "Complications." In a 2015 SheKnows interview, Szohr dug into her connection to her character. "Everything about Gretchen was awesome to me. So many layers and little details from the pilot," she said. "Things I think I can relate to with Gretchen ... [are that] we are both caretakers. Growing up with so many siblings, I always wanted to make sure they were OK and that their friends were OK. Gretchen goes out of her way to make sure the people she cares about are OK."

While Jessica Szohr has mostly kept her love life relatively private, she couldn't keep her relationship with "Gossip Girl" co-star Ed Westwick totally under the radar. The two started dating in 2008, broke up in 2010, but had an on-again, off-again relationship for years. "It can be a little awkward when all of a sudden [you have feelings for] someone you'd call to talk about a different boyfriend. But there wasn't a lot of thinking and talking. It kind of just happened," she told Teen Vogue in 2009. "We had fun together, and we were like, 'All right, let's see where this goes.'"

Fast forward six years, and Szohr was dating yet another NFL star. She and former New York Jets wide receiver Scotty McKnight began dating in 2015, and per usual, she kept schtum about the relationship throughout its course. However, she made several appearances on McKnight's Instagram page as he chronicled their time together at Coachella and other cute dates. An insider told E! News in April 2015, "They are very cute together and they're having lots of fun." It's not entirely clear when the couple split up, but both the pro football player and Szohr have each moved on with new partners.

There's no question that the American version of "Shameless" has a stunning and wicked talented cast. The main roster, of course, includes powerhouses like Jeremy Allen White, Emmy Rossum, and William H. Macy, but the supporting cast doesn't phone it in, either. By the time Jessica Szohr joined the show in 2017, it was already in its 8th season and had racked up a number of accolades. Understandably, she was thrilled to be a part of the "Shameless" cast.

"I was always a fan of ['Shameless']. I think the actors are incredible, I think the writing's amazing," Szohr told Cosmopolitan in November 2017. "I went and auditioned and within, like, two days they had offered it to me and I was super excited, and it was such a great season and awesome working with Emmy [Rossum]." In Season 8, Rossum's character, Fiona Gallagher, ends up in charge of an apartment building. Szohr played Nessa Chabon, one of Fiona's tenants.  

While Szohr appeared in almost all of Season 8, she only popped up once in Season 9. After her final "Shameless" episode, she set her sights on another small screen project.

In 2018, Jessica Szohr dove headfirst into the sci-fi genre thanks to Seth MacFarlane's "Star Trek"-inspired drama series "The Orville." In Season 2, she took on the part of Lieutenant Commander Talla Keyali. The show, which is centered around a starship's crew, was a new look for Szohr — literally: Like many actors on "The Orville," she wears prosthetics.

"It's really fun working with everyone. Everyone brings their own little thing to the set, so it's always fun," she told BriefTake in 2019. "It's funny, you get out of hair and makeup and you're like, 'We've just been working together for 17 hours and I completely forgot this is what you look like!'"

Before she joined the series, Szohr and MacFarlane spoke about his vision for the upcoming season and the character of Talla. This conversation sold Szohr on the project. "The social issues that he touches on with this show are so amazing and genius, and it's so fun because we get to play with it, in space," she told TVLine. "I love that part of the show, that had a lot to do with me wanting to do it." As of this writing, "The Orville" has not been picked up for a 4th season, but there have been a lot of hopeful rumblings about the show's future. As McFarlane said on an April 2024 episode of "The Mike Henry Show," "There will be more."

Like many Hollywood productions, "The Orville" had to delay filming between Season 2 and 3 due to the pandemic. Around that same time, Jessica Szohr suddenly had her hands full with a baby. The actor made it Instagram official with NHL player Brad Richardson in 2019, and after she found out she was expecting, she offered details about her pregnancy journey on Instagram for months. The couple welcomed their daughter, Bowie Ella Richardson, to the world in January 2021.

Shortly after giving birth, Szohr shared a body-positive message in February 2021 on Instagram. "Still blows my mind that I grew a little human inside me. My body transformed into her home for 10 months. While I look forward to getting back to exercising, I am grateful for my fast metabolism and I am proud of my body... it is resilient and strong!" she wrote.

On a 2022 episode of "On with Mario Lopez Interviews," Szohr reflected on her experiences with motherhood so far. "It goes fast. It is very fun ... Bowie's a very good baby, she sleeps well, she eats well, she's got a really good little attitude, she's funny," she said. "I called my mom with five kids and I'm like, 'Are you nuts?' I'm like, 'How did you do this?'" ... I don't know if I would do it five times."

No matter what Jessica Szohr does in her career, it'll be near-impossible to ever see her as anyone but Vanessa Abrams from "Gossip Girl." While some actors make a point of trying to distance themselves from the role that put them on the map, Szohr sure seems keen on embracing this piece of her filmography. So much so that she started hosting an iHeartRadio podcast about the show called "XOXO with Jessica Szohr." 

The podcast, which first premiered in January 2022, was initially supposed to be a straightforward "Gossip Girl" rewatch show. However, the format shifted to a more "interview-style" show, per Szohr's request. As she told Teen Vogue after the podcast debuted, she enjoyed digging into the series with series creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage in the first episode. "It's bringing back all these like warm, fuzzy feelings. We're taking a walk down memory lane. Now I can totally see why this show hit the way it did and why it was a fan favorite and why people thought it was so epic," she said. "Not that I didn't see that before, it's just I'm a little bit more removed, and older, and a mom."

The podcast ended in January 2023. By all accounts, it was a sweet gig. "The irony is it's a 'Gossip Girl' podcast, but I'm not here to gossip about things," Szohr said. "There are episodes I cry, episodes some guests have cried, and we laugh and there's a lot of feelings."

After three years of dating, professional hockey player Brad Richardson popped the question to Jessica Szohr. In May 2022, the "Gossip Girl" star shared a selfie on Instagram to show off her engagement ring and break their family's exciting news. As previously noted, Szohr gave birth to their first child together in 2021. Richardson also has a child from a previous relationship, a daughter named Lexi.

Even though Szohr knew she and Richardson were in it to win it before they got engaged, she still didn't see the proposal coming. "It caught me off guard, I didn't think it was going to be when it was, I didn't know it was going to be this year," she told Access Hollywood. "I had eye cream on and was going to bed, and literally he was like, 'Hey, we need to talk.'" While that might sound like the beginning of a breakup conversation, Richardson then launched into his proposal. 

As of this writing, the wedding date has not been announced, but the big day is reportedly just around the corner. In July 2024, fellow CW alum Nina Dobrev shared a carousel of photos on Instagram from Szohr's bachelorette party.  

She might be busy parenting and planning her wedding, but Jessica Szohr still has time for her career. In 2022, Szohr starred in the Discovery+ made-for-TV movie "Designing Christmas" opposite Hilary Farr and Hallmark Channel veteran Marco Grazzini. The holiday movie was about the co-hosts of a house renovation show, not too dissimilar from an HGTV series, who catch feelings for one another.

During a November 2022 interview with TV Insider, Szohr spoke about how she tapped into her renovation show host character. "We were sent a link to renovation shows to show us how we should talk to the camera versus when we were doing the renovation in the house. Getting the vibe of how those shows shoot," she said.  "I think that was a big part of going into it." When asked about the possibility of a sequel, she kept it coy. "I hadn't even thought about that until you just said that," she said. "There is definitely so much going on in this movie that there can definitely be more stories to be told. Maybe. Maybe not. Never say never."

As of this writing, Szohr has two new projects on the horizon. She's in an upcoming Jamie Foxx-helmed feature called "All-Star Weekend," and she nabbed a part in a horror movie called "Reapers Night."