Gossip Girl/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Serena van der Woodsen

"Gossip Girl is going down!"

The IT girl of the Upper West Side. Cheerful and carefree, fun and spirited. When the show starts, she returns to Manhattan after spending time at a boarding school.

Princess Blair Waldorf

Leighton Meester as Blair

"I am not a stop along the way. I am a destination."

Serena's BFF (and occasional rival). The preppy queen of Constance Billard, always with a crew of minions around her. Ruthless and elitist yet very much a loving friend and girlfriend. Although if you ask Dan Humphrey she's a 95-pound, doe-eyed, bonmot-tossing, label-whoring package of girly evil.

Chuck Bass

"Dude. I’m Chuck Bass. Even Europeans must know what that means."

Serena's brother (through adoption) and Blair's main love interest. The richest character on the show and also the most ruthless. Spends most of his time brooding in fancy suits while sipping scotch and plotting somebody's downfall.

Nate Archibald

"Affairs with married people, love triangles... Just so happens everyone's problems are within my area of expertise."

The fourth member of the show's core four (aka the Non-Judging Breakfast Club). Chuck's best friend, Blair's former boyfriend and Serena's occasional love interest. Comes with a large dose of family drama, a fair dose of stupidity and dashing manbangs.

Dan Humphrey

"We don’t have any servants here so if you see anybody else in the loft besides me, call the police. It’s not the chef."

Dan is the Brooklyn boy who falls in love with IT girl Serena van der Woodsen, only to find he doesn't exactly fit well in her world. By and by, he becomes more adjusted, but he still thinks the world of the Upper East Side crowd is highly immoral. Dan is an aspiring writer who in the books writes delightfully awful poetry but in the TV series prefers short stories.

"They have peace treaties!"

Jenny Humphrey

"Don't you read Gossip Girl? Extortion is what I do, all day."

Dan's younger sister who starts off idolizing Serena and wanting Blair's respect. Her innocence vanishes more and more each season and by now she could probably out-bitch Blair if she wanted to. Jenny's got a talent for designing and loves to make her own clothes.

Hardly ever seen in Season Four, and with Taylor Momsen dropped from the regular cast (and her subsequent announcement she was quitting acting in favor of music) likely to not appear at all in Season Five.

Lily van der Woodsen/Bass/Humphrey

"If Serena's indiscretions were as PG as Jenny's, I wouldn't have needed the botox."

Biological mother to Serena and Eric, adoptive mother to Chuck, stepmother to Dan and Jenny. Lily was much like her daughter Serena when she was younger, trying to break free from her strict mother's demands. As an adult, she has been spending most of her time getting married and getting divorced. She can be very caring and loving when she wants to, but most of the time she's an absent parent.

Rufus Humphrey

"I promise to eat caviar without spitting it out in my napkin when we go to dinner at Mayor Bloomberg’s. As long as he knows when he comes to our house he’s eating my chili."

Dan and Jenny's father, and stepfather to Eric, Serena and Chuck. A former rock star (or at least pseudo-star) who had a love affair with Lily in his youth. Years later, his son falls in love with Lily's daughter and eventually he and Lily find their way back to one another. Rufus is probably the most attentive parent on the show, although lately it seems he doesn't do much during the day.

Vanessa Abrams

"My parents are artists, my sister’s a musician. Just like going to an Ivy is your family’s way, not going to college is mine."

Dan's bohemian BFF and on-and-off crush. Vanessa is a documentary film maker and aspiring script writer who frowns on everything regarding the Upper East Side.

Eric van der Woodsen

"Jenny, your sweet potatoes are bland."

Serena's little brother, who is often the sole voice of reason. Gone from the show in Season Five.

  • All Gays Are Promiscuous: Subverted.
  • Ascended Extra
  • Coming Out Story: A Season One episode reveals that he is gay.
  • Driven to Suicide: The reason why Serena returns in the pilot is because Eric tried to kill himself.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: When Serena left for boarding school.
  • Only Sane Man: Most of the time. Recently, less so. Definitely in the context of his own family, however.
  • Parental Abandonment
  • Parental Issues
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In Seasons One, Two and Three, he was the only through-and-through decent character. In Season Four, he plots to take Chuck and Blair down and hates on Chuck in favor of Jenny, even though Chuck has always treated Eric well and Jenny has thrown Eric under the bus countless times.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: As far as Season 5 goes, he completely disappeared from the radar without any explanation.
    • There was a throw away line about him starting college in one of the episode at the beginning of the season.

Gossip Girl

"And who am I? That's one secret I'll never tell."

The girl (guy?) who runs the blog the whole series is built around.

Dorota Kishlovsky

"KGB can't get me to talk. Chuck Bass has no chance."

Blair's nanny/maid/sidekick. Dorota is actually a Polish duchess but she moved to America to escape an unhappy marriage and began to work for the Waldorfs. In many ways, the real mother figure in Blair's life and the person who does most of Blair's legwork for her.

  • Ascended Extra: Started out as a background character but evolved into Blair's eternal sidekick. Dorota got a backstory in the webisodes Chasing Dorota and had an entire episode revolve around her wedding day.
  • Beta Couple: She and Vanya (Chuck's doorman). Chuck actually helped Vanya win Dorota's heart, and he threw their wedding.
  • Cool Old Lady
  • Happiness in Slavery: Pretty much a modern example.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Her estranged husband shows up in Chasing Dorota.
  • Mama Bear: Towards Blair.
  • Older Sidekick: Blair's a teenager and while we haven't been given Dorota's exact age, her actress is in her thirties. And Cyrus has confirmed that she practically raised Blair, meaning she ought to be at least ten years Blair's senior.
  • Parental Substitute: As noted above she practically raised Blair.
  • Servile Snarker: Though mostly the facial expressions she makes when Blair says or does something she deems snark-worthy. Dubbed Dorota's WTF face by the fans.
  • Shipper on Deck: She always wants what is best for Blair, and seems pretty convinced that Chuck is the person Blair is meant to be with.
    • At least, at first. Now, she's more persistent about Dan.
  • Smart People Play Chess
  • Undying Loyalty: She is always on Blair's side, no matter what.

Georgina Sparks

"You can tell "Jesus", the bitch is back"

A former friend of Serena van der Woodsen and sworn enemy of Blair Waldorf, she is the series' most recurring antagonist. As it turns out during Season 5 (major spoiler), she usurped Gossip Girl's identity.

  • Arch Enemy: To both Serena and Blair.
  • Ascended Extra
  • The Baby Trap: To Dan.
  • Batman Gambit: In Season 3's "The Lost Boy", where she sends Blair a fake invitation to an elite society and uses a contact who works for someone Chuck is trying to impress in order to send the pair after the same photograph, thus bringing out both Blair and Chuck's competitive, self-serving sides and attempting to drive a wedge between the pair.
  • Blackmail: She blackmails Serena in season one; she uses her knowledge of Serena sort of, but not actually, killing a man to control her.
  • Blondes Are Evil: In Season 4.
  • Brief Accent Imitation
  • The Dreaded: Serena is terrified of her, and even the others have Oh Crap moments with her on the loose.
  • Evil Counterpart: She started out as what Serena could have become. In later seasons, she seems to have become more of an Evil Counterpart to Blair around about the same time Blair became her main enemy.
  • Oh Crap: “You can tell Jesus that the bitch is back.” Cue epic Oh Crap look from Blair.
  • Put on a Bus: For almost a full season after she is sent to reform school in the Season One finale. In fact, although she's a recurring antagonist, she often appears only once in a while in each season for some episodes, and disappear as quickly as she arrived (after wreaking some havoc). Kind of a Zigzag Bus.
  • Reformed but Rejected: In late Season 2.
    • Especially prevalent in the Season 4 penultimate episode, where she is yearning to get in on the dirt but is being snubbed.
  • The Reveal: Averted. It looks like she's Gossip Girl, but it's revealed that she's just usurping her identity.
  • We Used to Be Friends: To Serena.
  • Yandere: For Dan.
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