Michelle Trachtenberg dead at 39
Actor Michelle Trachtenberg has died at age 39.
Police sources told The New York Post that the actor was found at around 8am Wednesday in her New York apartment. Sources also revealed that Trachtenberg had recently undergone a liver transplant, but no cause of death has been revealed.
The NYPD has since confirmed that police responded to an emergency call at 1 Columbus Place in New York. “Upon arrival, officers observed a 39-year-old female unconscious and unresponsive,” a statement said. “EMS responded to the location and pronounced the victim deceased. Criminality is not suspected.”
Trachtenberg began her acting career as a child and took on several notable roles in Gossip Girl, Mysterious Skin, Harriet the Spy, and more. From the 1990s onward, she was a key face in TV and film.
Trachtenberg started out as a child actor in the 1990s on the show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. She also rose to notoriety playing the titular character in the 1996 adaptation of the beloved 1960s children’s book Harriet the Spy. Taking on several roles in both TV shows and Hollywood movies, Trachtenberg was a well-known name before she’d even come of age.
“It was a little more sheltered,” she once said of her earlier life. “What was a really big switch for me was going from a place where entertainment was prominent, but not surrounding, and in LA, I feel like you’re constantly surrounded by people in the entertainment business.”
But her career endured long into her adulthood. Her role in Mysterious Skin proved her worth as a serious actor in the coming-of-age flick, while her casting as Georgina Sparks in the hit drama Gossip Girl solidified her movement from child star to one of TV’s finest. Starring in six seasons of the show between 2008 and 2012, it became one of her most recognisable roles.
Another of her most notable roles came when she was cast as Dawn Summers in the TV adaptation of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Appearing in over 60 episodes between 2000 and 2003, her role was a truly beloved part of the show. In February 2025, when Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed that a revival of the series was in the works, fans hoped to see Trachtenberg revive her role, too.
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