Michelle Trachtenberg, a onetime child actor who starred in “Harriet the Spy” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and later appeared in “Gossip Girl,” has died. She was 39.
Trachtenberg was found dead Wednesday morning in her New York apartment, police told The Times in a statement.
The actor was found dead by her mother around 8 a.m. at One Columbus Place, a 51-story luxury apartment complex on Central Park South, police said.
“Upon arrival, officers observed a 39-year-old female unconscious and unresponsive. EMS responded to the location and pronounced the victim deceased. Criminality is not suspected,” the statement said. The medical examiner will conduct an autopsy.
ABC News reported that she died of natural causes after recently undergoing a liver transplant and may have been experiencing complications.
“The family requests privacy for their loss,” Trachtenberg’s representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Trachtenberg was born Oct. 11, 1985, in New York City. Her father was a fiber-optics technician from Germany and her mother was a bank manager from Russia, according to the Daily News. She grew up in a Russian-speaking household in Brooklyn and began acting at 3, appearing in TV commercials and then in guest roles on “Law & Order” and Nickelodeon’s “Clarissa Explains It All” in the early 1990s.
She appeared in a few episodes of “All My Children,” succeeding “The O.C.” star Mischa Barton as Lily Benton Montgomery, and crossed paths with soon-to-be “Buffy” star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who would later help her land a role on their cult-classic prime-time drama, which ran from 1997 to 2003.
For the record:
5:12 p.m. Feb. 26, 2025An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Trachtenberg’s ‘The Adventures of Pete & Pete’ character was named Mona. Her name was Nona.
Trachtenberg rose to prominence as Nona Mecklenberg in the Nickelodeon series “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” before making her feature film debut and getting her big break in the 1996 film “Harriet the Spy,” which she starred in alongside Rosie O’Donnell, Gregory Smith and J. Smith-Cameron.
In the early 2000s, she played Gellar’s younger sister Dawn Summers in Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” appearing in 66 episodes of the WB TV series over three years. Her character, a member of the sci-fi universe’s so-called Scooby Gang, was later revealed to be an energy embodiment known as the Key. It is unclear if Trachtenberg was set to appear in the upcoming sequel that Gellar confirmed was happening last month.
“I think why ‘Buffy’ caught on was because there was really no other show at the time of its debut … that glorified a female as a main character as, or rather, no show that had a female main character that was tough since ‘Charlie’s Angels,’” Trachtenberg told ContactMusic.com. “Even the ‘Charlie’s’ Angels’ girls were a little bit more about showing off and then the fighting. Buffy’s more of a take-charge kind of deal.”
“I am deeply saddened by the news of Michelle’s passing. She brought a loving energy to the set of Buffy. My thoughts are with Michelle’s family and friends,” Alyson Hannigan, who played teen-turned-witch Willow in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” wrote Wednesday on Instagram.
David Boreanaz, who played Buffy’s on-and-off love interest Angel in the series and starred in its spinoff, “Angel,” reacted to Trachtenberg’s death on Instagram stories, writing: “So very sad … horrible news. RIP and prayers to her and her family.”
In 2021, Trachtenberg spoke up about her experience on the hit series in the wake of misconduct allegations made against “Buffy” creator Whedon by Gellar, her co-star Charisma Carpenter and DC Extended Universe star Ray Fisher.
Trachtenberg accused the writer and director of inappropriate, “very bad” behavior, though she did not go into specifics. “This must. Be known,” Trachtenberg wrote on Instagram, alleging that there was a rule on set that Whedon was “not allowed in a room alone” with her.
“What [Whedon] did was very bad. But we win. By surviving!” she wrote. Whedon later denied the allegations.
Trachtenberg also starred in the 2005 figure-skating film “Ice Princess,” co-written by Meg Cabot, that co-starred Kim Cattrall. Her other credits include the films “Inspector Gadget,” “Eurotrip” and “17 Again” and a starring role as Marina Oswald in 2003’s “Killing Kennedy.” She also did stints on the TV series “Mercy” and “Weeds” and had a prominent role as bad-girl socialite Georgina Sparks on the CW’s melodrama “Gossip Girl,” which also starred Penn Badgley, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. Trachtenberg reprised the role in HBO’s 2021 reboot and the part is listed on IMDb as her final acting credit.
As Georgina, she earned a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2012. She told Seventeen that it was “definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl.”
“I love the reaction you get. I never understood why some actors don’t want to play villains or evil characters,” she said.
In a 2021 interview with “Access Hollywood,” Trachtenberg said the pot-stirring Georgina was her “most favorite character” and that she had not yet heard about a “Buffy” reboot, but hoped — as with “Harriet the Spy” readers and viewers — that “it honors what the fans love.”
Trachtenberg also hosted the Tubi true crime series “Meet, Marry, Murder” in 2021.
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