Washington:
Actor Michelle Trachtenberg, known for her roles in “Gossip Girl” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, has died at the age of 39.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) stated that she was found unconscious and unresponsive in her Manhattan apartment.
According to Variety, she had recently been undergoing a liver transplant. However, the exact cause of death has not been confirmed, though NYPD has ruled out any criminal involvement.
In a statement, NYPD said officers responded to a 911 call shortly after 8 am, and emergency medical workers pronounced her dead at the scene.
“It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away,” her publicist, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement, adding. “The family requests privacy for their loss. There are no further details at this time.”
Born in New York on Oct. 11, 1985, Trachtenberg started her acting career at a very young age. She was just 3 when she appeared in commercials, and later, she got her first TV project, the Nickelodeon series ‘The Adventures of Pete & Pete’, which premiered in the mid-1990s, according to Variety.
At the age of 10, she got an opportunity to act in a movie, ‘Harriet the Spy’, which was released in 1996.
However, her breakthrough role was playing Dawn Summers on the teen drama ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.
Trachtenberg joined the popular show in its fifth season and remained on it through its seventh and final season, which ended in 2003.
Her other successful project was ‘Gossip Girl’, which aired from 2007 to 2012. In the teen drama, she played Georgina Sparks.
She briefly reprised her role on HBO Max’s ‘Gossip Girl’ reboot in 2022, as per the outlet.
Apart from these successful shows, she also starred in films, including 2004’s ‘Eurotrip’, a raunchy teen comedy, and 2005’s ‘Ice Princess’, a comparatively wholesome film about a nerdy high schooler with a passion for figure skating, reported Variety.
She was also part of ’17 Again’, a 2009 American teen fantasy comedy film directed by Burr Steers. It stars Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, and Michelle Trachtenberg, with Melora Hardin, Sterling Knight, and Matthew Perry in supporting roles.
