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<p data-start="318" data-end="439"><em data-start="345" data-end="358">Gossip Girl</em> and <em data-start="363" data-end="389">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> actress Michelle Trachtenberg has died aged 39.</p>
<p data-start="441" data-end="604">According to the New York City police department, the actress was found unconscious and unresponsive Wednesday in her Manhattan apartment, reports <em data-start="588" data-end="601">Variety.com</em>.</p>
<p data-start="606" data-end="820">According to the <em data-start="623" data-end="638">New York Post</em>, she had recently undergone a liver transplant. Trachtenberg&rsquo;s cause of death has not been confirmed, but the New York Police Department (NYPD) said criminality was not suspected.</p>
<p data-start="822" data-end="1005">In a statement, NYPD said that officers responded to a 911 call just after 8 am and Trachtenberg was pronounced dead by emergency medical workers, who also responded to the scene.</p>
<p data-start="1007" data-end="1222">&ldquo;It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away. The family requests privacy for their loss. There are no further details at this time,&rdquo; publicist Gary Mantoosh said in a statement.</p>
<p data-start="1224" data-end="1485">Born in New York in 1985, Trachtenberg began acting at a young age. She was 3 years old when she began appearing in commercials and soon after landed her first TV credit, on the Nickelodeon series <em data-start="1421" data-end="1452">The Adventures of Pete &amp; Pete</em>, which aired in the mid-1990s.</p>
<p data-start="1487" data-end="1665">By age 10, she scored her first starring film role in 1996&rsquo;s <em data-start="1548" data-end="1565">Harriet the Spy</em>, in which she played the eponymous aspiring sleuth opposite Rosie O&rsquo;Donnell and J. Smith-Cameron.</p>
<p data-start="1667" data-end="1961">Trachtenberg&rsquo;s breakthrough, however, was playing Dawn Summers on the teen drama <em data-start="1748" data-end="1774">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em>. She joined the popular show in its fifth season as the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar&rsquo;s Buffy Summers and remained on the series through its seventh and final season in 2003.</p>
<p data-start="1963" data-end="2295">She found further success on another teen drama, portraying the agent of chaos known as Georgina Sparks on <em data-start="2070" data-end="2083">Gossip Girl</em>, which ran from 2007 to 2012. Her character, a diabolical Manhattan socialite, regularly found herself feuding, or blackmailing, with Blake Lively&rsquo;s Serena van der Woodsen and Leighton Meester&rsquo;s Blair Waldorf.</p>
<p data-start="2297" data-end="2365">She briefly reprised her role in the <em data-start="2334" data-end="2347">Gossip Girl</em> reboot in 2022.</p>
<p data-start="2367" data-end="2698">Trachtenberg has a long list of genre-spanning credits on the big and small screen. Her film roles include 2004&rsquo;s <em data-start="2481" data-end="2491">Eurotrip</em>, the raunchy teen comedy that popularized the fictional song <em data-start="2553" data-end="2574">Scotty Doesn&rsquo;t Know</em>, and 2005&rsquo;s <em data-start="2587" data-end="2601">Ice Princess</em>, a comparatively wholesome film about a nerdy high schooler with a passion for figure skating.</p>
<p data-start="2700" data-end="2906">She also starred in 2009&rsquo;s <em data-start="2727" data-end="2737">17 Again</em> with Zac Efron and Matthew Perry, as well as episodes of TV shows such as <em data-start="2812" data-end="2825">Law &amp; Order</em>, <em data-start="2827" data-end="2853">Clarissa Explains It All</em>, <em data-start="2855" data-end="2872">All My Children</em>, <em data-start="2874" data-end="2890">Six Feet Under</em>, and <em data-start="2896" data-end="2903">Weeds</em>.</p>
<p data-start="2700" data-end="2906"><em><strong>&mdash;IANS</strong></em></p>
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Trachtenberg’s breakthrough was playing Dawn Summers on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

The actress had undergone a liver transplant, and was found unresponsive in her NYC apartment

Michelle Trachtenberg, ‘Gossip Girl’ star, dies at 39

The actress had undergone a liver transplant, and was found unresponsive in her NYC apartment

February 27, 2025 | 09:50 IST