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Call it the “Cousin Oliver Curse” or “Scrappy-Doo Syndrome.” It’s when a new character is introduced into a long-running TV series with hopes of “refreshing” things, only to meet with negative audience response. One show that managed to survive this problem was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which in Season Five’s first episode debuted (SPOILER ALERT!) Buffy Summers’ magically-created younger sister, Dawn. That the insertion worked was a testament to the abilities of 15-year-old Michelle Trachtenberg. The actress, who already had a number of film and TV appearances under her belt pre-Buffy, would go on to build an impressive résumé as an adult right up until her sudden and untimely death this week at the age of 39.
A native New Yorker, Trachtenberg’s performing career started with TV commercial work at the age of three. By the time she was nine Michelle had recurring roles on the ABC soap All My Children and then Nickelodeon’s The Adventures of Pete and Pete, where she played Little Pete’s BFF, arm cast-wearing Nona F. Mecklenberg. In 1996 she was cast as the title grade school sleuth in the film Harriet the Spy, based on Louise Fitzhugh’s popular children’s book, and in 1999 she played Penny, the level-headed niece to Matthew Broderick cybernetic crimefighter, in Disney’s live-action Inspector Gadget adaptation.
2000 would find Trachtenberg joining Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Dawn Summers, a role she played for the show’s final three seasons. Some fans were initially put off by the character’s retconned appearance, but (just as big sister Buffy did), they came to accept her as she assumed a key role (sorry) as a member of the “Scooby Gang.” During her Sunnydale tenure, Michelle also found time to serve as hostess and narrator of the Discovery Kids “shockumentary” series Truth or Scare.
In 2004 the actress graduated into more mature roles and co-starred in a pair of very different “coming-of-age” movies, the raucous comedy Eurotrip and indie director Greg Araki’s intense drama Mysterious Skin. The following year saw her as the high school science whiz-turned-figure skater in Disney’s Ice Princess. Michelle had a not-so-merry holiday in 2006’s Black Christmas, a revamp of the ’70s proto-slasher film, and was Matthew Perry’s teen daughter in the 2007 “fountain of youth” comedy 17 Again.
Michelle found more success on the small screen in 2007 when she was cast as the calculating Georgina Sparks, a hard-partying socialite and former friend to protagonist Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), in the CW teen soaper Gossip Girl, based on a popular book series. Appearing every so often to stir up trouble during the show’s six-season run, she concurrently co-starred in the 2010 NBC nursing drama Mercy. Trachtenberg was the daughter of Bruce Willis’ NYPD cop in Kevin Smith’s 2010 action/comedy Cop Out, and teamed up with fellow Buffy alum Seth Green in a dark 2013 suspenser, Sexy Evil Genius. She also guest starred in various series, including recurring roles in Six Feet Under and Weeds. Her 2022-23 reprisal of Georgina in the HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl would prove to be her final TV credit.
Trachtenberg was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on Feb. 26. Initial reports suggested that the young actress may have died due to complications from a recent liver transplant.