NEW YORK (AP) — Michelle Trachtenberg, a former baby star who appeared within the 1996 “Harriet the Spy” hit film and went on to co-star in two buzzy millennial-era TV exhibits — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl” — has died. She was 39.
Police responded to a 911 name shortly after 8 a.m. at a 51-story luxurious residence tower in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood the place officers discovered Trachtenberg “unconscious and unresponsive,” based on an NYPD assertion.
Paramedics pronounced her lifeless on the scene. No foul play was suspected and the New York Medical Examiner is investigating the reason for dying, police stated.
“The family requests privacy for their loss,” Trachtenberg’s consultant, Gary Mantoosh, stated in a press release Wednesday.
Trachtenberg was 8 when she started taking part in Nona Mecklenberg on Nickelodeon’s “The Adventures of Pete & Pete Nona” from 1994 to 1996 after which starred within the title function within the movie variations of “Harriet the Spy” and “Inspector Gadget,” reverse Matthew Broderick.
“Michelle comes off as genuine because she really is a genuine kid. Everyone can identify with her,” stated Debby Beece, president of Nickelodeon Motion pictures in 1996.
In 2000 Trachtenberg joined the forged of “Buffy,” taking part in Daybreak Summers, the youthful sister of the title character performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar between 2000 and 2003.
Trachtenberg thanked Gellar for talking out towards Joss Whedon in 2021, following abuse allegations made towards 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 skilled as a teenage actor.
In 2001, she acquired a Daytime Emmy nomination for internet hosting Discovery’s “Truth or Scare.” Trachtenberg went on to recurring roles on “Six Feet Under,” “Weeds” and “Gossip Girl,” the place she performed the gang’s scheming nemesis, Georgina Sparks.
For her fan-favorite function, she was nominated as a TV villain on the Teen Selection Award in 2012. “It’s definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl,” she advised Seventeen in 2009. I like the response you get. I by no means understood why some actors don’t need to play villains or evil characters.”
She was one of many authentic collection’ stars to return for a pair of visitor appearances within the 2021 “Gossip Girl” revival.
As if to cement herself in millennial tradition, 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 Inexperienced.
Her different credit included “Ice Princess” in 2005, taking part in a math prodigy and aspiring determine skater. The AP stated it had “a good, though feeble, heart and the best of intentions” and stated Trachtenberg was “mining the same nervous twitter from her kid-sister days on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’”
The New York Metropolis-born Trachtenberg additionally appeared within the 2004 teen intercourse comedy “EuroTrip,” she co-starred with Zac Efron and Leslie Mann in 2009’s “17 Again” and performed murderous stalker and abductor on an episode of “Criminal Minds.”
For “Killing Kennedy,” the 2013 movie wherein she performed the spouse of Lee Harvey Oswald, round 80% of Trachtenberg’s dialogue was in Russian. She had discovered the language from her mom rising up.
Different credit included supporting roles within the movies “Mysterious Skin” in 2004 and “Black Christmas” in 2006. She additionally starred on the NBC medical collection “Mercy” (2009–2010) reverse Taylor Schilling. Extra lately, she hosted the true-crime docuseries “Meet, Marry, Murder” on Tubi.