Jessica Szohr

Jessica Szohr is an American actress and model born on March 31, 1985, in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. She is best known for her breakthrough role as Vanessa Abrams on The CW's teen drama series Gossip Girl, as well as her main cast role as Talla Keyali in the science fiction series The Orville. Over the course of her career, she has performed extensively across television series, feature films, and music videos.

Szohr is of Hungarian and one-quarter African-American descent and is the oldest of five children. Raised in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, she started a cleaning business with a friend as a teenager to clean their teachers' houses. She began modeling as a child, appearing in print advertisements for Kohl's, Crate & Barrel, Mountain Dew, Sears, Jockey, and JanSport. After graduating a semester early from Menomonee Falls High School, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother at age 17 to pursue acting, having originally planned to study interior design at Columbia College Chicago.

Szohr made her screen acting debut in 2003 with a minor appearance in the film Uncle Nino and a guest role on the television show My Wife and Kids. She subsequently appeared in guest spots on series such as That's So Raven, Drake & Josh, What I Like About You, Joan of Arcadia, What About Brian, and CSI: Miami. In 2007, she landed her breakthrough role as Vanessa Abrams on Gossip Girl. Initially cast in a recurring role, she was promoted to a series regular in 2008 and remained on the show through its fourth season, later returning for a cameo appearance in the 2012 series finale.

Following her breakthrough, Szohr expanded her film career with prominent roles, including playing Kelly in the 2010 horror film Piranha 3D. She subsequently appeared in feature films such as I Don't Know How She Does It, Love, Wedding, Marriage, Hirokin, Art Machine, Love Bite, The Internship, and Ted 2. On television, her credits include recurring and guest roles in Complications, Kingdom, Twin Peaks, and Shameless, before she joined the main cast of the Fox and Hulu series The Orville in 2018.

Over her career, Szohr won the Breakthrough Actress in Film award at the 2010 Breakthrough of the Year Awards and was named to People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People list the same year. In January 2022, she launched the retrospective podcast XOXO with Jessica Szohr, featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes discussions with Gossip Girl cast and crew. In her personal life, she enjoys snowboarding, hiking, and yoga, and is a Green Bay Packers fan. She married former NHL player Brad Richardson in August 2024, with whom she has a daughter born in January 2021.