Reneé Rapp Seemingly Shades Sex Lives of College Girls in New Song
It looks like Reneé Rapp isn't the biggest fan of her college days.
Less than two years after announcing her departure from The Sex Lives of College Girls, the 25-year-old seemingly threw some shade at the HBO Max series on her new song "Leave Me Alone," which was released May 21.
"I took my sex life with me, now the show ain't f--king," Reneé sings on the second verse of the track. "Leave me alone, b---h, I wanna have fun."
And while the "Pretty Girls" singer—who portrayed Leighton on the comedy series for two seasons before announcing her exit in July 2023—hasn't confirmed the line is a diss, she previously shared insight into why she had a difficult time on set of Sex Lives, which was canceled in 2025 following the release of its third installment.
"The first year doing College Girls was terrible," Reneé told Alex Cooper on a February episode of her Call Her Daddy podcast. "It sucked so bad."
The Mean Girls star—who identifies as bisexual but was in a heteronormative relationship at the time—went on to say she initially struggled with a lot of self-doubt over playing a queer character.
"I was like, 'I don't think I'm good enough to be here,'" she recalled. "I was just in panic constantly. I wasn't [straight], but I was so freaked out by the idea of my sexuality not being finite or people laughing at me—or me laughing at myself—that I hated the first year of filming."
However, Reneé eventually learned to love her role as Leighton—an evolution she reflected on when announcing her exit from the Mindy Kaling-created series, which also starred Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur and Alyah Chanelle Scott.
"A lot of queer work gets belittled—but playing Leighton has changed my life," Reneé wrote on Instagram at the time. "I love who I am 10x more than I did before knowing her. I hope she gave y'all a little bit of that too. She's such a tiny part of representation but even the tiny parts count."
She added, "I wouldn't be half the person I am without her and y'all."
And Mindy echoed that sentiment, sharing that it was hard to see Reneé walk away from the series.
"We love @reneerapp so much," the Office alum wrote on her Instagram Stories at the time, "and of course will be so sad to say goodbye to Leighton Murray!"
For more stars who have made shocking exits from TV shows, keep reading.
While fans maybe should have been aware that the days were numbered for Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller, considering his April 2025 death was quite similar to how it unfolded in The Last of Us Part II, the 2020 video game season two of The Last of Us is based on, the moment his character was brutally impaled still stunned.
Pascal, meanwhile, who also died onscreen in Game of Thrones and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, took his game over status in stride. "I get killed a lot," he joked to Entertainment Weekly. "I like to die."
After what he dubbed "one wild adventure," Peter Krause officially extinguished his role as 9-1-1's Los Angeles Fire Department captain Bobby Nash on an April 2025 episode of the procedural drama.
“Bobby Nash was written in sacrifice, and he was built for this,” Krause wrote in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “First responders risk their lives on the job so that others can see another day. His story arc honors them.”
Killing off the somewhat tormented, but beloved, firefighter was certainly a hot topic, showrunner Tim Minear acknowledged to Variety, "but after eight years, it just felt like, if we have any hope of creating stories going forward that have actual stakes, then someone's got to die."
Ahead of The Sex Lives of College Girls' third season, Reneé Rapp announced she would be leaving the Max series.
"College Girls moved me out to LA and introduced me to some of my favorite people," she wrote on social media in July 2023. "2 and a half years later—it's given me y'all and this community."
The show's co-creator Mindy Kaling also confirmed Rapp's exit. "We love @reneerapp so much and of course will be so sad to say goodbye to Leighton Murray!" Kaling wrote on her Instagram Stories before referencing Rapp's thriving music career. "We can't wait to see our friend on tour!!"
More than a year after Kevin Costner was rumored to have unexpectedly walked away from the hit Paramount drama after four and a half seasons, he confirmed in June 2024 that he will not return to finish out the series' fifth and final season.
After 19 years as Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo scrubbed in for the last time as a series regular on the ABC drama in February 2023.
"I gotta mix it up a little bit," Pompeo explained on The Drew Barrymore Show in December 2022, though she has already returned for a May guest appearance and continues narrating the series. "I'm 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs. I gotta do something new. You can't do The New York Times crossword puzzle every single day."
Batman vs. Superman star Henry Cavill revealed he would be stepping away from the Netflix fantasy drama after its third season—with the announcement that Liam Hemsworth will assume the role of Geralt for season four, and potentially beyond.
"My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures," Cavill wrote on Instagram in October 2022. "Alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4."
Original castmember Jesse Lee Soffer turned in his badge in 2022, saying goodbye to his beloved character Detective Jay Halstead role after 10 seasons.
"To create this hour drama week after week has been a labor of love by everyone who touches the show," Soffer said in a statement after his final appearance in the NBC procedural's Oct. 5 episode. "I will always be proud of my time as Det. Jay Halstead."
After five seasons, Damian Lewis departed Showtime's Billions in Oct. 2021.
In Aug. 2021, it was reported that Emily VanCamp hung up her stethoscope for good as she had exited Fox's The Resident.
After three seasons of feeling Charmed, Madeleine Mantock, who played eldest sister Macy on the CW reboot, announced her exit ahead of season four in 2021. Calling the role "an immense privilege," in a statement, the actress shared how much she "enjoyed working with our fantastic producers, creatives, cast and crew."
Turns out Elizabeth Keen never will find out the truth about Raymond Reddington's identity. Megan Boone chose to leave NBC's The Blacklist at the end of season eight, and of course her character was killed off before she had the chance to read the letter that would have revealed everything. Boone marked the end of Liz's journey in 2021 with an Instagram post in which she called the experience "a dream."
Season two of Bridgerton was down one duke. Rege-Jean Page became the breakout star of Netflix's massive hit drama, and then broke hearts all over the place when it was announced that he would not be returning for the second season in 2021.
"I signed up to do a job and I did the job and then I did some other jobs," he later explained to Vanity Fair. "That's it. That's the story. I wish it was more glamorous than that."
Ruby Rose made her debut in 2018's Arrowverse crossover and then starred in one season as the titular Batwoman (a.k.a. Kate Kane) in the CW drama—making history as the first lesbian superhero to headline their own show, as Batwoman came out of the closet in a major TV moment—before announcing her exit just two days after the season one finale aired in 2020. The role was eventually replaced with Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, a new character set to take control of the Batcave in season two.
Later on in season two, Kate got a bit of a face swap and returned played by Wallis Day.
America Ferrera decided to exit Superstore at the end of season five in 2020, leaving Cloud 9 without a manager and the show without a lead. She ended up appearing in the first two episodes of season six due to the pandemic, and then when season six was deemed the end, she returned for the series finale to give Amy and Jonah (Ben Feldman) the happy ending they deserved.
In the 2019 season four finale of the Syfy series, Jason Ralph's character Quentin completed his quest to save Eliot (Hale Appleman), but sacrificed himself in the process. While the show does feature dead characters—it's called The Magicians after all—Ralph did not return for the fifth and final season.
Ahead of the final season, Arrow's Emily Bett Rickards announced her exit in a poem of sorts.
"Felicity and I are a very tight twoBut after one through seven
we will be saying goodbye to you," she wrote.
She did, however, return for a guest appearance in the show's 2020 series finale.
Lauren Cohan said see you later to The Walking Dead in 2018 following prolonged contract negotiations. She appeared in a handful of season nine episodes, but after a six-year time jump her character Maggie Greene was nowhere to be seen. Producers were hopeful she'd return in some capacity for season 10, and after her short-lived ABC series Whiskey Cavalier was canceled, they got their wish. Cohan made her grand return in this season's 16th episode, which aired in October 2020.
Hot on the heels of Cohan and Andrew Lincoln bidding farewell to the zombie drama came Gurira's exit. After joining the AMC series in season three as the katana-wielding Michonne, she made her last appearance in a season 10 episode, which aired in March 2020.
A recurring player in season one and series regular in season two, Nicollette Sheridan starred as the iconic Alexis Carrington. She announced plans to exit the CW reboot ahead of season three in 2019 to spend time with her ailing mother.
George Eads exited the CBS remake in 2019, midway through season three. At the time, he expressed his desire to leave and spend more time with his family.
Fox's Lethal Weapon is no stranger to cast exit drama. Clayne Crawford was fired from the series after the second season and his former TV partner Damon Wayans announced his plans to exit the hit drama after the 13-episode third season. "I'm going to be quitting the show in December after we finish the initial 13, so I really don't know what they're planning, but that's what I'm planning," he said in October 2018. "I'm a 58-year-old diabetic and I'm working 16-hour days… Murtaugh said, ‘too old for this.'"
Producers didn't need to work on a replacement plan, though. The show was canceled at the end of season three.
Ian Gallagher went to the slammer. When Cameron Monaghan left Shameless during its ninth season, his character was locked up. In reality, Monaghan was ready to explore new projects after nine years on the show. But, in a true TV twist, he went ahead and signed on to return for season 10 anyway and was present and accounted for when the show returned for its 11th and final season in December 2020.
After nine seasons as Fiona Gallagher, Emmy Rossum announced plans to leave Shameless in 2018.
"Emmy Rossum will forever be part of the Shameless family," executive producer John Wells said in a statement. "She has been integral to the show's success, from her wonderful portrayal of Fiona to her leadership role on set, as well as directing multiple episodes of the series. We are hard at work now creating a season nine finale for Shameless which we hope will provide a Gallagher-worthy sendoff for Fiona that honors the great work Emmy has done. It is always bittersweet when an ensemble member decides to move out of the proverbial house, but our door will always remain open for Fiona to return home for a visit, or to move back in. I look forward to continuing the stories of this wildly unpredictable family and all of us on Shameless will miss Emmy and her wonderful Fiona."
Chelsea Peretti appeared in Brooklyn Nine-Nine when it made its NBC debut, but she didn't stick around for the whole run. In a series of tweets in 2018, the actress announced her plans to leave the comedy, but maintained she would be back. She even used Rossum's farewell letter to Shameless as the basis of her own. Peretti welcomed a son with husband Jordan Peele in 2017. Her character was on maternity leave and sat out several episodes in season five.
Lincoln said goodbye to the blood, sweat and dirt of the zombie apocalypse and left The Walking Dead during season nine. "These guys have been the best surrogate family I could have hoped for," Lincoln said at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2018. "But I do have a real family and it is time for me to go home,"
After 15 years, Pauley Perrette hung up her lab coat and left NCIS in 2018. "I believe in God and the universe so firmly, and it just suddenly became blindingly apparent that now was the time," she said. "After a lot of thought, I decided to announce it myself on Twitter because I didn't want it to be turned into anything 'shocking. Abby leaving is more than a cheap TV ploy."
Original cast member Willa Holland's exit from The CW's Arrow had been in the works for a while, boss Marc Guggenheim told TVLine in 2018. She asked to have her episode count reduced and then to be written out in season six. Her departure just happened to coincide with the return of Thea's boyfriend, Roy (Colton Haynes), and so they headed off into the sunset together to destroy the dangerous Lazarus Pits that her late father had discovered.
Grace Park, who shot to fame on Battlestar Galactica, left Hawaii Five-0 ahead of its eighth season in 2017. She and costar Daniel Dae Kim left after negotiations to reach pay parity with their co-stars failed.
“I’m grateful for the lessons learned, but I chose what was best for my integrity,” Park later told Entertainment Weekly. “I know that people are always trying their best, and everyone’s coming from their own backgrounds.”
Like Park, Kim left the CBS drama in between seasons seven and eight. In a Facebook post, Kim said the choice to leave was difficult, and that he made himself available to come back, but "CBS and I weren't able to agree to terms on a new contract."
Season four of the NBC drama ended with Sophia Bush's character entertaining a job offer in New York with the FBI, taking her out of the titular Windy City. In December 2018, the actress explained that she quit the series after "a consistent onslaught barrage of abusive behavior."
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