Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Trachtenberg dies aged 39
Michelle Tratchenberg appeared in TV hits including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Trachtenberg has died at the age of 39.
Police sources confirmed the actress’s death to The New York Post on Wednesday (26 February).
Trachtenberg was reportedly found dead in her New York City apartment just after 8am local time by her mother, police sources told ABC News.
Her death is reportedly not being being treated as suspicious, while police sources said she had recently undergone a liver transplant. PinkNews has approached representatives for the star for comment.
Born in New York, Trachtenberg first appeared on screen as a baby before making her acting debut at the age of three in Nickelodeon seres The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Her breakthrough role came in 1996 comedy Harriet the Spy, in which she played the titular character.
She achieved wider renown in 2000 when she joined the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for season five as Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) – a role she would play until the conclusion of the series in 2003.
After Buffy wrapped, Trachtenberg appeared in another LGBTQ+ favourite series, Six Feet Under, where she guest starred as a difficult pop starlet who employed the services of gay security officer Keith (Mathew St. Patrick).
She later joined the cast of hit teen series Gossip Girl as conniving socialite Georgina Sparks from 2008-2012 – a role she briefly reprised for the show’s queer-inclusive reboot in 2023.
On the big screen, Trachtenberg starred in films including Mysterious Skin (2004) Ice Princess (2005), horror flick Black Christmas (2006), and teen comedy 17 Again (2009) opposite Zac Efron and the late Matthew Perry.
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