“Luna is who I wanted to be when I was in high school,” says Gossip Girl actress Zíon Moreno about her sassy, over-the-top character Luna La. “She’s how I wanted to be seen, how I wanted to come back at my bullies in high school. I love her, she represents so much.”

Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Moreno always had her sights set on the Big Apple. Watching iconic series like Sex and the City and, of course, the OG Gossip Girl, Moreno was captivated by the bustling energy of the metropolis. Yearning to escape the Southwest, Moreno made a whirlwind decision to move to New York City in 2015. “When I got off the subway into Manhattan, I saw with my own eyes what it was like to be here,” the actress tells V. “It was so gratifying to finally be able to see it with my own eyes after yearning for it for so long.”

Unsure of a career path, the star tried her hand at several outlets when she first moved to New York—modeling, waitressing, odd jobs—before ultimately landing on her true passion: acting. Though you’ll most likely find Moreno hanging out in Bushwick or the Lower East Side rather than the haunts seen in the Upper East Side-based Gossip Girl, her role in the reboot is equal parts nostalgic and boundary-breaking. As a lover of the original series, the role felt natural for the actress: she took inspiration from her high school years to channel the ultra-mean girl energy into Luna, as well as the narratives witnessed in the aforementioned series.
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Check out episode 4 of V Magazine’s second season of “My New York” created in collaboration with Milk Makeup! Stay tuned for new episodes launching every Friday here on YouTube and Vmagazine.com, the series will spotlight NYC's movers-and-shakers as they guide us through the formative spots in the city that have inspired and cultivated their craft.

Series creators: Sam Tracy & Czar Van Gaal
Director: Joshua Charow
Executive producer: Kala Herh
Video editor: Nick Freeman
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Series Beauty Director: Mitch Yoshida
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Production Assistant: Carlos Chinn

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