Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Tratchenberg dies aged 39
Michelle Tratchenberg appeared in TV hits including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Tratchenberg has died at the age of 39.
Police sources confirmed the actress’s death to The New York Post on Wednesday (26 February).
Tratchenberg was reportedly found dead in her New York City apartment just after 8am local time by her mother, police sources told ABC News.
Her death is reportedly not being being treated as suspicious, with US media reporting that the star had recently undergone a liver transplant. PinkNews has approached representatives for the star for comment.
Born in New York, Tratchenberg first appeared on screen as a baby before making her acting debut at the age of three in Nickelodeon seres The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Her breakthrough role came in 1996 comedy Harriet the Spy, in which she played the titular character.
She achieved wider renown in 2000 when she joined the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in season five – a role she would play until the conclusion of the series in 2003.
After Buffy wrapped, Tratchenberg appeared in another LGBTQ+ favourite series, Six Feet Under, where she guest starred as a troubled pop star.
She later joined the cast of hit teen series Gossip Girl as conniving antagonist Georgina Sparks from 2008-2012 – a role she briefly reprised during the show’s avowedly queer reboot in 2021.
On the big screen, Tratchenberg starred in films including Ice Princess (2005) horror flick Black Christmas (2006), as well as comedy 17 Again (2009) opposite Zac Efron and the late Matthew Perry.
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