TV & Movies

21 Celebrity Gossip Girl Cameos You Probably Forgot About

From Lady Gaga to Robyn.

by Amy Roberts and Ivana Rihter
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Kristen Bell and Rachel Bilson making a cameo on 'Gossip Girl'
The CW/screenshot

Throughout its glamorous six-season run, Gossip Girl attracted an equally glamorous roster of guest stars. Lady Gaga! Robyn! Tyra Banks and her signature smize!

That will be no different in the upcoming HBO Max reboot of the show, which will pick up nine years after the original Gossip Girl blog shuttered and follow a new cast of New York’s rich and Insta-famous teens. “We’re trying to have cameos in every episode,” Joshua Safran, who served as an executive producer on the original show and developed the reboot, told OK! Magazine in January. “There’s a fashion event in the pilot, so there are fashion cameos, there’s a charity event in Episode 2. There’s a very big cameo in Episode 3.”

Only in the world of Gossip Girl are children rubbing shoulders with fashion moguls and watching huge celebrities play quaint venues just for them. The original show’s list of famous guest stars included models, politicians, cult rockers, TV stars, fashion designers, movie directors, and music legends. But considering it’s been nearly a decade since the series was last on air, there are likely several celeb appearances you forgot about — unless you happen to have a rolodex for a brain. Below, revisit the 21 wildest cameos on the original series.

1

Lady Gaga

Season 3, Episode 10: "The Last Days Of Disco Stick"

When you're Blair Waldorf, you don't just buy a round of drinks at the local college bar to win the affections of your peers -- you go all out and hire Mother Monster to do a high-end show. In this Season 3 episode, Lady Gaga dramatically emerges from a sea of fog to perform her 2010 smash hit “Bad Romance” and the crowd goes wild.

2

Tyra Banks

Season 3, Episode 4: "Dan Le Fleurette"

The inimitable Tyra Banks played Ursula, a co-star to Dan’s movie star girlfriend Olivia (Hilary Duff) who befriends Serena. Meant to be an over-the-top Hollywood diva, Banks serves big hair, a bigger attitude, and just the right amount of melodrama in every line. “I’m [the] No. 1 fan of Gossip Girl,” Banks said in a 2009 interview. “I’ve been obsessed from the time Serena got off that train in the train station.”

3

Sonic Youth

Season 3, Episode 5: "Rufus Getting Married"

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore were also huge Gossip Girl fans, which led to the legendary noise rock band playing at Rufus and Lily's wedding in the show. The result was a really tender moment set to an acoustic version of Sonic Youth’s "Starpower" that was perfectly befitting of the rock-and-roll lifestyle the couple shared when they first fell in love. (Gordon even officiated their ceremony).

4

Kristen Bell

Season 6, Episode 10: "New York, I Love You, XOXO"

In one of the more meta moments on the show, Kristen Bell (who narrated the series as the mysterious voice of "Gossip Girl") made a surprise cameo in the final episode as herself, reading from a script based on Dan's hit book. She’s also set to return for the reboot. “Kristen Bell has always been and will always be the voice of ‘Gossip Girl,” the show’s producers said in a 2019 statement, per The Wrap.

5

Rachel Bilson

Season 6, Episode 10: "New York, I Love You, XOXO"

In the same episode, The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson joined Bell in reading Dan’s script, sharing in our collective shock (and confusion) upon learning who Gossip Girl was all along. Bilson was teen show royalty at the time, having starred on The O.C. as Summer Roberts, so it was a nice crossover moment within the teen star universe.

6

Krysten Ritter

Season 2, Episode 24: "Valley Girls"

Ritter played Lily's sister, Carol, in this flashback episode. It was intended to function as a pilot for a Gossip Girl spinoff revisiting Lily’s wild teen years, but the series never came to fruition. The episode focuses on the aftermath of Lily dropping out of school and running away to Hollywood, including plenty of fun ‘80s clothing and shenanigans in the LA party scene.

7

Ryan Hansen

Season 2, Episode 24: "Valley Girls"

If you're a fan of Rob Thomas' shows, you'll recognize Hansen from iZombie, Party Down, and the iconic Veronica Mars (in which he starred alongside both Ritter and Bell). In the flashback episode, he plays the musician friend of Carol’s boyfriend and has a very Dick-Casablancas-in-the-'80s vibe that is quite frankly kind of irresistible -- especially in that glorious all-denim look.

8

No Doubt

Season 2, Episode 24: "Valley Girls"

In yet another flashback cameo, ‘90s icon Gwen Stefani performed with her band No Doubt at a club Lily and Carol were at. They played a fictional band called Snowed Out and sang a cover of the Adam and the Ants song “Stand and Deliver,” which they later performed on their 2009 tour and ultimately recorded for the deluxe edition of their sixth studio album Push and Shove, released in 2012.

9

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

Season 4, Episode 6: "Easy J"

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner inexplicably and briefly showed up at a party during this episode, which is extremely difficult to stomach after seeing the ineptitude and destruction directly caused by the Trump administration. From how warmly Lily and Rufus greeted both of them, we're left to assume that they used to hang out together, talking about economics and... the '90s grunge scene?

10

Michael Bloomberg

Season 6, Episode 10: "New York, I Love You, XOXO"

The former NYC mayor and 2020 presidential candidate once called Gossip Girl "an ambassador for New York City" and even declared Jan. 26 as the city's official Gossip Girl day to mark the show's 100th episode. So it was only fitting that he had a chaotic and unexpected cameo in the show's final episode. They really pulled out all the stops.

11

Mädchen Amick

Season 2, Episodes 1-4

The Riverdale and Twin Peaks star played Nate's beautiful older lover for a few episodes during the second season of the show. Her wardrobe was to die for and she knew exactly how to keep a man interested. Plus, there was the delicious twist where Blair caught her and Nate entangled on the floor together and blackmailed Catherine until she got her way.

12

Lisa Loeb

Season 1, Episode 17: “Woman on the Verge” and Season 6, Episode 10: “New York, I Love You XOXO”

The iconic singer-songwriter made an appearance in the Season 1 episode, "Woman On The Verge," as the special guest host of a show that Rufus' band was playing. Gossip Girl brought the story full circle when she popped up again in the series finale -- this time as Rufus' new girlfriend. “I’m friendly with one of the writers on the show. Somebody who I knew back in New York City … in the early 90s when I started out after college,” Loeb explained to The New York Times of how she wound up on the series.

13

Robyn

Season 4, episode 7: "War At The Roses"

Robyn really knows how to inspire a crowd to dance all of their worries away. In this episode, she performs her hits “Dancing on My Own” and “Hang with Me” at a party Blair is throwing. The singer was expectedly fantastic, but what you probably weren't expecting was that she'd be part of a calculated takedown of Blair that included some pretty cruel drunk-shaming.

14

David O. Russell

Season 4, Episode 22: "The Wrong Goodbye"

The Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle director played himself in the Season 4 finale, giving Serena a lucrative opportunity in the film industry with his movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful And The Damned. There is no project more perfect for party girl Serena than a novel completely centered around East Coast elites running amok in the New York café scene.

15

Tim Gunn

Season 4, Episode 6: "Easy J"

National treasure Tim Gunn played himself in this episode, and was not impressed when little J's fashion line was revealed as having been sabotaged to spell out the word, "whore." This may have seemed edgy to J at the time, but Gunn has seen it all when it comes to fashion trends and — as evidenced by Project Runway — is never one to mince words.

16

Cyndi Lauper

Season 2, Episode 10: "Bonfire Of The Vanity"

Before Cyrus Rose and Blair's mom were married, Blair launched a full-on offensive to sabotage their relationship. In this episode, Cyrus kindly gets his old friend and icon Cyndi Lauper to play Blair's birthday as a surprise, and it quickly becomes clear what a total jerk his future daughter-in-law can be. But Cyndi looked amazing with her signature blonde chop and a fun leopard print outfit.

17

Rachel Zoe

Season 4, Episode 7: "War At The Roses"

The fashion designer (and founder of Bustle’s sister publication The Zoe Report) has one of the funniest — and messiest — cameos on Gossip Girl. Everything is already in shambles at Blair’s birthday party when Zoe takes a tumble and manages to tip an entire bowl of chocolate over herself. It spills everywhere, Blair is mortified, and the party is destroyed.

18

Deadmau5

Season 3, Episode 16: "The Empire Strikes Jack"

Deadmau5, aka Joel Thomas Zimmerman, is a Canadian electronic music producer, DJ, and musician whose signature look involves performing with a huge cartoonish mouse costume over his head. He became well-known for his house music and techno beats in the 2000s, so there was certainly no better choice in DJ than him to play Eleanor Waldorf's fabulous fashion show.

19

Zoë Bell

Season 5, Episode 1: "Yes, Then Zero"

The legendary stunt actor and action star of movies like Death Proof and Whip It went on a hair-raising date with a dangerously depressed Chuck Bass. After he nearly crashed the motorcycle they were riding together, she basically had to tell him to slow down and stop being so reckless with his life -- even in the face of true hopelessness.

20

Karlie Kloss

Season 4, Episode 1: "Belles Du Jour"

Before she was known for being a top model, part of the Kushner family, or Taylor Swift's BFF, Kloss made a very brief cameo as a party guest on Gossip Girl. She also got brutalized trying to ask Georgina her name -- not the kind of treatment a super model is used to, which made it all the more funny.

21

Alexa Chung

Season 6, Episode 3: "Dirty Rotten Scandals"

The British model, clothing designer, and fashion mogul was in line to walk the catwalk during Blair's fashion show but backed out when a huge scandal predictably broke out. You really can’t blame Chung for not wanting to go down with a sinking ship, but she did look absolutely fabulous in her Blair Waldorf-designed outfit. It’s too bad the world couldn’t see her strut down the runway in it.

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