Michelle Trachtenberg Dead at 39, Star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl
Michelle Trachtenberg, best known to TV viewers for her runs as Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s kid sis Dawn and Gossip Girl‘s Georgina Sparks, was found dead on Wednesday in a New York City apartment near Columbus Circle. She was 39.
“It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away,” a spokesperson for the actress said in a statement to TVLine. “The family requests privacy for their loss. There are no further details at this time.”
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Trachtenberg’s death is not believed to be suspicious; she recently underwent a liver transplant and may have experienced complications, police sources told ABC News.
Trachtenberg’s early acting career began with episodes of Law & Order and Clarissa Explains It All, followed by a run as All My Children‘s Lily Montgomery. Ahead of her Buffy bow, she had a role on the CBS sci-fi sitcom Meego and appeared on the Nickelodeon panel show Figure It Out.
Trachtenberg’s breakout acting role came with the 1996 film Harriet the Spy. On the big screen, she was also known for 2004’s EuroTrip.
Trachtenberg’s memorable Buffy debut came with the Season 5 premiere, when the cult hit mysteriously posited that Buffy had had a younger sister all along. It was eventually revealed that Dawn was “the key” delivered to Buffy by monks trying to stop Glory, a god. Dawn had been created from Buffy, and Buffy and her friends were given memories to make them think she’d always been in their lives.
Trachtenberg went on to appear in every episode of the supernatural drama’s final three seasons.
Trachtenberg’s death comes less than a month after news broke that Hulu is developing a Buffy sequel series. The as-yet-untitled project is said to be focused on a new Slayer and “the next chapter in the Buffyverse,” with Gellar appearing in a recurring role rather than a leading one.
Michelle Trachtenberg’s Co-Stars React to Her Tragic Death
Concurrent with Buffy, Trachtenberg hosted Discovery Kids’ Truth or Scare.
Upon Buffy‘s conclusion, Trachtenberg went on to appear in Six Feet Under, six seasons of Gossip Girl, NBC’s Mercy medical drama, Weeds, Sleepy Hollow and Max’s short-lived Gossip Girl reboot (reprising her role as Georgina), as well as bang out numerous one-off guest spots (including on Criminal Minds).
Her voice acting gigs included Robot Chicken (including as “Harriet the Spy”), The Super Hero Squad Show and Facebook Watch’s Human Kind Of.
Most recently, Trachtenberg did voiceover work for Spyral, an award-winning 2024 documentary about mental illness.
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