Who Exactly Is Maggie Geha And Why Did She Leave Gotham?

Comic book stories are one of the dominating genres of stories coming out of Hollywood lately. Since Robert Downey Jr. declared he is Ironman, there has been an explosion in the number of comic book projects. This explosion has crossed over to television where several shows are live action portrayals of comic book characters. The result of this explosion is the rapid popularity actors and actresses achieve by starring in comic book stories, like that of Maggie Geha, who starred in Gotham, a show about the fictional city of the Batman universe.

Although her appearance on the show was short-lived, the rewards have stayed with Maggie Geha who is now known across several fanbases as one of the actresses who has portrayed the iconic character, Poison Ivy. Learn more about Maggie and her career below.

Who Exactly Is Maggie Geha?

Before she was cast as Poison Ivy in Gotham, Maggie Geha had a very lowkey career. Although she had featured in a number of major productions, she played minor roles in them until she got a chance to star in the comic book show. It was a much-needed break for the actress who was born in Boston, Massachusetts on the 4th of April, 1988.

Her career started in the year 2007 after she completed her education. She had graduated from high school in Vermont before she headed to Newport, Rhode Island for college. How and when exactly she developed the passion for acting is unknown but it was one she was determined to make a career out of.

A little peek into her background showed that she was raised alongside her sister, Sophie Geha by her parents, one of whom is Mary Westbrook-Geha, who is a choral director and an American mezzo-soprano. Her initial foray into entertainment began at the age of 16. Being a beautiful girl, Maggie Geha competed in the Miss Vermont Teen USA beauty pageant. It was her first attempt at a form of modeling and she excelled, winning the competition in 2004. This win spurred a career as a model for Maggie Geha.

However, despite the relative success she had as a model where she appeared in a number of music videos, including in one for Beyonce’sPretty Hurts, Maggie never lost sight of her dream of becoming an actress and she achieved it in 2007 when she made her on-screen debut in 2011 in a short film, Taxi Cab Teranga as the character, Cate.

Since the debut, Maggie Geha has gone on to star in a number of television shows. In the following year after her debut, she appeared in an episode of the hit young adult show, Gossip Girl. Till date, her most prominent roles have come on Television. Maggie has starred in a total of six television shows thus far, with major appearances as Susan in All My Children in 2013 and as Ivy Pepper in Gotham (2016). She is slated to appear as Abigail Spencer in the Netflix show, Mr. Iglesias (2019).

In Film, where most actors and actresses tend to make their name, Maggie Geha hasn’t made much of an impact. Although she has appeared in a couple of notable films such as Winter’s Tale alongside Will Smith and in Ted 2 where she starred alongside Mark Wahlberg, she has mostly been limited to minor roles. In total, Maggie Geha has been featured in five films till date.

Why Did She Leave Gotham?

Maggie Geha as Poison Ivy

Getting cast in a show like Gotham is a massive opportunity for any actor, especially one with a developing career and Maggie Geha was able to celebrate earning this opportunity in 2016 when she was cast as Ivy Pepper (Poison Ivy) on the show. She went on to star in two seasons of the show, appearing in the main role in the third season and in a reduced guest role in the fourth season.

As the actress playing an iconic comic book character, Maggie was set to be the face of a generation of Poison Ivy fans until she was replaced with Peyton List by the show’s producing network. The reason for the replacement, which was met by controversy by fans of the show was down to a change of direction by the show’s production team which sought to make Poison Ivy an older character, one Maggie Geha was too young to portray.