Michelle Trachtenberg, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Harriet the Spy' star, dies at 39

NEW YORK (AP) — Michelle Trachtenberg, a former child star who appeared in the 1996 “Harriet the Spy” hit movie and went on to co-star in two buzzy millennial-era TV shows — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl” — has died. She was 39.

Police responded to a 911 call shortly after 8 a.m. at a 51-story luxury apartment tower in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood where officers found Trachtenberg "unconscious and unresponsive,” according to an NYPD statement.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. No foul play was suspected.

Trachtenberg’s family objected to an autopsy, the New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner said Thursday. Because there was no evidence of criminality, the medical examiner’s office honored the objection, limiting its findings. Such objections are allowed by law. The cause and manner of her death are listed as undetermined.

“The family requests privacy for their loss," Trachtenberg's representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement Wednesday.

Trachtenberg was 8 when she began playing Nona Mecklenberg on Nickelodeon’s “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” from 1994 to 1996 and then starred in the title role in the film adaptations of “Harriet the Spy” and “Inspector Gadget,” opposite Matthew Broderick.

“Michelle comes off as genuine because she really is a genuine kid. Everyone can identify with her,” said Debby Beece, president of Nickelodeon Movies in 1996.

In 2000 Trachtenberg joined the cast of “Buffy,” playing Dawn Summers, the younger sister of the title character played by Sarah Michelle Gellar between 2000 and 2003.

Trachtenberg thanked Gellar for speaking out against Joss Whedon in 2021, following abuse allegations made against 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 experienced as a teenage actor.

In 2001, she received a Daytime Emmy nomination for hosting Discovery’s “Truth or Scare.” Trachtenberg went on to recurring roles on “Six Feet Under,” “Weeds” and “Gossip Girl,” where she played the gang’s scheming nemesis, Georgina Sparks.

For her fan-favorite role, she was nominated as a TV villain at the Teen Choice Award in 2012. “It’s definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl," she told Seventeen in 2009. I love the reaction you get. I never understood why some actors don’t want to play villains or evil characters.”

She was one of the original series' stars to return for a pair of guest appearances in the 2021 “Gossip Girl” revival.

Blake Lively on Instagram on Tuesday honored her “Gossip Girl” co-star: "The world lost a deeply sensitive and good person in Michelle. May her work and her huge heart be remembered by those who were lucky enough to experience her fire.”

As if to cement herself in millennial culture, 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 Green.

Hollywood took to social media to mourn one of their own, one who had made the transition from kid star to teen queen to adult actor. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” co-star David Boreanaz said on Instagram it was “so very sad.. horrible news.” Melissa Gilbert, who starred with Trachtenberg in the 1996 film “A Holiday for Love,” wrote on Instagram: “My heart aches for your family and all those who loved you so.”

Rosie O’Donnell, who starred alongside Trachtenberg in her “Harriet the Spy" debut, said her death was “heartbreaking:” “I loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped.” Glee star Chris Colfer remembered her this way: “Michelle was the absolute sweetest and one of the most supportive people I knew,” he wrote.

Trachtenberg's later credits included “Ice Princess” in 2005, playing a math prodigy and aspiring figure skater. The AP said it had “a good, though feeble, heart and the best of intentions” and said Trachtenberg was “mining the same nervous twitter from her kid-sister days on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'”

The New York City-born Trachtenberg also appeared in the 2004 teen sex comedy “EuroTrip,” she co-starred with Zac Efron and Leslie Mann in 2009's “17 Again” and played a murderous stalker and abductor on an episode of “Criminal Minds.”

For “Killing Kennedy,” the 2013 film in which she played the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, around 80% of Trachtenberg’s dialogue was in Russian. She had learned the language from her mother growing up.

Other credits included supporting roles in the films “Mysterious Skin” in 2004 and “Black Christmas” in 2006. She also starred on the NBC medical series "Mercy" (2009–2010) opposite Taylor Schilling. More recently, she hosted the true-crime docuseries “Meet, Marry, Murder” on Tubi.

Associated Press Writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

This story first moved Feb. 26, 2025, and was updated on Feb. 27, 2025, to reflect that Trachtenberg's cause of death was being listed as undetermined.

FILE - Michelle Trachtenberg appears at the premiere of "Defiance" during AFI Fest 2008 in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - Actor Michelle Trachtenberg, left, who portrays Dawn, Buffy's sister Emmy, playfully spears series producer-creator Joss Whedon, during the taping of the final episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in Santa Monica, Calif., April 16, 2003. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Michelle Trachtenberg appears at the Critics' Choice Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on June 19, 2014 (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Actors and fellow "Gossip Girl" cast members Michelle Trachtenberg, left, and Blake Lively appear at the 2009 CFDA Fashion Awards in New York, on June 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, FIle)

FILE - Actress Michelle Trachtenberg poses for a portrait during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Mark Mainz, File)

FILE - Michelle Trachtenberg appears at The Art of Elysium's Ninth annual Heaven Gala in Culver City, Calif., on Jan. 9, 2016. (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is heading toward the finish of a strong, potentially perfect week as U.S. stocks on Friday drift close to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an economic era ago.

The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in early trading and potentially on track for a fifth straight gain. It’s heading for a 4.6% rise for the week, which would be its third big winning week in the last four, as hopes build that President Donald Trump will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them. Such hopes have driven the S&P 500 back within 3.6% of its record set in February, after the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts briefly dropped roughly 20% below the mark last month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.

Trump’s trade war had sent financial markets reeling worldwide because of twin dangers. On one hand, tariffs could slow the economy and drive it into a recession. On the other, it could push inflation higher. A couple better-than-expected reports on inflation this past week helped soothe some those second worries.

But all the Trump’s on-and-off rollout of tariffs could by itself damage the economy by creating so much uncertainty that it causes U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending and long-term plans. A report coming later in the morning will offer the latest snapshot of sentiment among U.S. consumers, which has been souring sharply because of tariffs.

In the meantime, Treasury yields eased in the bond market following this week’s better-than-expected signals on inflation, which could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to cut interest rates later this year if high tariffs drag down the U.S. economy.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.39% from 4.45% late Thursday and from more than 4.50% the day before that. Lower bond yields can encourage investors to pay higher prices for stocks and other investments.

On Wall Street, Charter Communications rose 1.3% after it said it agreed to merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would combine two of the country’s largest cable companies. The resulting company will change its name to Cox Communications and keep Charter’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

Novo Nordisk’s stock that trades in the United States fell 1.8% after the Danish company behind the Wegovy drug for weight loss said that Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will step down as CEO and that the board is looking for his successor. The company cited “recent market challenges” and how the stock has been performing recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 inched down by less than 0.1% after the government reported that Japan’s economy contracted at a faster rate than expected in the first quarter of the year.

AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Jonathan Corpina works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders Jonathan Mueller, right, and Michael Capolino work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)