Michelle Trachtenberg, star of several hit television series including “Gossip Girl” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died at age 39.
Trachtenberg was found dead in an apartment in New York City on the morning of Feb. 26, officials confirmed to NBC News. A cause of death has not yet been shared and while an investigation is ongoing, criminality is not suspected.
Trachtenberg got her start as a child actor playing Lily Montgomery on the long-running soap opera “All My Children” and made appearances on the classic 1990s Nickelodeon series “The Adventures of Pete and Pete.”
She made her feature film debut as the young star of “Harriet the Spy,” the 1996 live-action movie based on the classic children’s novel written by Louise Fitzhugh.
Trachtenberg went on to play Dawn Summers, the little sister of protagonist Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and, later, the devious Georgina Sparks on “Gossip Girl.”
In 2021, Trachtenberg joined other female stars of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” including Charisma Carpenter and Amber Benson, to accuse series creator Joss Whedon of misbehavior on the show’s set.
Trachtenberg, who joined the show in its fifth season, noted that she was “brave enough now” at age 35 to call out Whedon’s “not appropriate” behavior around her when she was a teenager.
“The last. Comment I will make on this. Was. There was a rule. Saying. He’s not allowed in a room alone with Michelle again,” she wrote.
Whedon later denied the actors’ allegations during an interview with New York Magazine.
In the weeks before her death, fans began worrying about Trachtenberg’s health following a series of selfies she shared that showed her looking thinner than she usually appeared.
Actor Ed Westwick, who co-starred alongside Trachtenberg on “Gossip Girl,” paid tribute to the actor shortly after news of her death was announced.