Michelle Trachtenberg, known and loved for her roles in Harriet the Spy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl and EuroTrip, passed away Wednesday at the age of 39.
Police responded to a 911 call at a residential tower in midtown New York, where "officers observed a 39-year-old female unconscious and unresponsive," according to a statement from the NYPD. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A representative for the Trachtenberg family released the following statement: "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."
According to police sources from ABC News, Michelle was discovered by her mother in her New York City apartment. She also reportedly had recently had a liver transplant.
Born on October 11, 1985, in New York City, Michelle enjoyed an incredibly successful career as an actress. As a child, she starred in multiple Nickelodeon productions such as The Adventures of Pete & Pete, which ran from 1994 until 1996. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for her role in the children's series Truth or Scare. Her breakout role was at age 10 as the lead in the film Harriet the Spy.
At the turn of the century, Michelle joined the cast for the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Dawn Summers. She remained in the role until the show's end in 2003. After Buffy finished, she starred as Jenny in the cult classic film EuroTrip. That same year, she played Wendy in Mysterious Skin opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
In 2008, she became a recurring cast member as Georgina Sparks on the hit CW show Gossip Girl. She played the character for a total of 28 episodes, ending in 2012. She reprised her role for two episodes of the 2022 revival series.
Michelle had been working consistently on television, appearing in several series such as Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, and Sleepy Hollow, as well as providing her voice to the animated series Human Kind Of and Robot Chicken. Her cause of death has not yet been confirmed. ~Ryan Donahue