Jewish actress Michelle Trachtenberg dies at 39; no foul play suspected
Child star who appeared in ‘Harriet the Spy,’ ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Gossip Girl’ found unresponsive at Manhattan home, reportedly underwent liver transplant recently
NEW YORK — Michelle Trachtenberg, a former child star who appeared in the 1996 “Harriet the Spy” hit movie and went on to co-star in two buzzy millennial-era TV shows — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl” — has died. She was 39.
Police responded to a 911 call shortly after 8 a.m. at a 51-story luxury apartment tower in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, where officers found Trachtenberg “unconscious and unresponsive,” according to an NYPD statement.
Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. No foul play was suspected and the New York Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death, police said.
“The family requests privacy for their loss,” Trachtenberg’s representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement Wednesday.
The New York Post, which first reported on the death, cited sources who said the actress had recently undergone a liver transplant.
Trachtenberg was Jewish, and she said her mother immigrated from what is now Russia. She grew up in New York, speaking English and Russian.
Trachtenberg was 8 when she began playing Nona Mecklenberg on Nickelodeon’s “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” from 1994 to 1996. She then starred in the title role in the film adaptation of “Harriet the Spy” and in “Inspector Gadget” opposite Matthew Broderick.
“Michelle comes off as genuine because she really is a genuine kid. Everyone can identify with her,” said Debby Beece, president of Nickelodeon Movies in 1996.
In 2000, Trachtenberg joined the cast of “Buffy,” playing Dawn Summers, the younger sister of the title character played by Sarah Michelle Gellar between 2000 and 2003.
Trachtenberg thanked Gellar for speaking out against Joss Whedon in 2021, following abuse allegations made against the “Buffy” showrunner. “I am brave enough now as a 35-year-old woman to repost this,” she wrote on social media, and alluded to “his not appropriate behavior” she experienced as a teenage actor.
In 2001, she received a Daytime Emmy nomination for hosting Discovery’s “Truth or Scare.” Trachtenberg went on to recurring roles on “Six Feet Under,” “Weeds” and “Gossip Girl,” where she played the gang’s scheming nemesis, Georgina Sparks.
As if to cement herself in millennial culture, Trachtenberg made a cameo in Fall Out Boy’s music video for the “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” alongside Seth Green.
Her other credits included “Ice Princess” in 2005 — playing a math prodigy and aspiring figure skater — and the 2004 teen sex comedy “EuroTrip.” She co-starred with Zac Efron and Leslie Mann in 2009’s “17 Again.”
Other credits included supporting roles in the films “Mysterious Skin” in 2004 and “Black Christmas” in 2006. She also starred on the NBC medical series “Mercy” (2009–2010) opposite Taylor Schilling. More recently, she hosted the true-crime docuseries “Meet, Marry, Murder” on Tubi.
On Instagram, Trachtenberg made occasional references to her Jewish identity, posting about a Hanukkah celebration a decade ago and again about the holiday in 2022.
Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that launched the war in Gaza and touched off a wave of global antisemitism, Trachtenberg has posted photos of herself wearing a Star of David necklace and another, last year, of a Mickey Mouse Hanukkah backpack along with the caption “Please stop hatred towards the innocent.”
The Times of Israel Community.