Michelle Trachtenberg, ‘Harriet the Spy’ Star and ‘Gossip Girl’ Favorite, Dead at 39
Michelle Trachtenberg, the star of Harriet the Spy who went on to have memorable parts in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl, died today, the New York City Police Department confirmed to Rolling Stone. She was 39.
A NYPD spokesperson said Trachtenberg died at her apartment this morning. After responding to a 911 call at her building, police found her “unconscious and unresponsive.” Trachtenberg was pronounced dead after emergency medical services arrived. A cause of death was not immediately available, but authorities do not believe her death was suspicious. An investigation remains ongoing.
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Trachtenberg, who started acting as a child, enjoyed a enduring run as an actress during the Nineties and 2000s, with starring and supporting roles in an array of popular TV shows and movies geared toward kids, teenagers, and young adults. Her first major role was on the Nickelodeon classic The Adventures of Pete & Pete at age nine, with filming beginning on Harriet the Spy a year later.
As a teenager, Trachtenberg joined Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Dawn Summers, sister of titular slayer Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), near the end of the show’s run. Along with an indelible turn in the mid-aughts comedy EuroTrip, Trachtenberg was a recurring presence on Gossip Girl, playing the devious socialite Georgina Sparks.
Born Oct. 11, 1985, in New York City, Trachtenberg was put in front of cameras before she could even walk. As a baby, according to a 1996 Orange County Register story, she appeared in newspaper advertisements, and she made her TV commercial debut — a spot for Wisk laundry detergent — at age three. Trachtenberg appeared in more than 100 commercials before securing her first TV role, playing a dying child on an episode of Law & Order.
Along with Pete & Pete — where she played Nona F. Mecklenberg, neighbor and friend of Younger Pete — Trachtenberg had an early recurring part on the hit soap opera All My Children. There, she played Lily Montgomery, the adopted, autistic daughter of Jackson Montgomery, the longstanding character played by Walt Willey.
With Harriet the Spy, Trachtenberg had her first major film role as a precocious New York City kid whose penchant for writing and snooping on her classmates lands her in trouble. In a 2016 oral history about the film for Uproxx, she recalled the excitement of securing the role — “I had been acting since I was three, and to be the star of a movie was a dream come true” — and the connection she felt with the character.
“My passion for the role won the producers’ hearts,” Trachtenberg said. “I loved everything about Harriet, particularly that she was a writer because I had been writing stories from the second I learned how to write.”
Over the next year, Trachtenberg appeared in a few more movies — including 1999’s Inspector Gadget with Matthew Broderick — and made scattered television appearances. But it wasn’t until the early 2000s that her acting work picked up again. Along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she hosted the Discovery Kids show Truth or Scare.
In 2004, Trachtenberg returned to the big screen with two films that seemed to kick off a new young adult-oriented phase of her career: the raunchy comedy EuroTrip and Mysterious Skin, the latter directed by cult favorite filmmaker Gregg Araki. She hadn’t fully shed her kid-friendly past, though, as she starred in the Disney film Ice Princess the following year.
Trachtenberg also picked up guest spots or small recurring parts on TV shows like Six Feet Under, House, and Robot Chicken. On Gossip Girl, she thrilled at the chance to play Georgina Sparks, chewing scenery while tormenting the other Upper East Siders around her.
“It’s actually kind of easy,” Trachtenberg told Seventeen of playing the villain, “because the words that they write are so fantastic. It’s kind of easy to be evil when you’re saying evil things. It’s definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl. I love the reaction you get. I never understood why some actors don’t want to play villains or evil.”
Trachtenberg continued to act regularly in the 2010s, mostly in TV, where she had a main role on the short-lived show Mercy, and small parts on Love Bites and Weeds. She also appeared on the web series Guidance and Human Kind Of, and in the films 17 Again, Cop Out, and The Scribbler.
In 2021, Trachtenberg was one of several actresses to raise misconduct allegations against Buffy the Vampire Slayer showrunner Joss Whedon. Trachtenberg accused Whedon of inappropriate behavior, and while she did not provide specifics, she alleged, “There was a rule saying [Whedon] is not allowed in a room alone with Michelle again.” (Whedon would later deny the various claims against him.)
In recent years, Trachtenberg’s output had slowed, though she did host the true-crime series, Meet, Marry, Murder, and reprised her role as Georgina on the short-lived Gossip Girl reboot. Recently, Trachtenberg’s posts on social media had sparked concerns among fans about her health. In January 2024, she wrote on Instagram, “I’ve received several comments recently about my appearance. I have never had plastic surgery I am happy and healthy.”
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