Our Friend Michelle

Every generation has that entertainer who reflects the lives of the audience who grows up watching them. Someone I’ve always looked up to who embodied that reflection in my generation is actress Michelle Trachtenberg. Yesterday was her birthday, so it’s only fitting that she deserves a birthday tribute.

Michelle Christine Trachtenberg Was born October 11th 1985 in New York City. Born to Jewish immigrants from Germany and the Ukraine, her mother was a bank manager and her father was a fiber optics salesman. Michelle’s road to show biz started very young. While still living in New York she attended junior high school at The Bay Academy for the Arts and Sciences and when her family moved to California she attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles.

At just the toddler age of three years old Michelle started acting in commercials and would have an extensive resume of 100 plus of them to her credits. Her earliest acting credits would start with roles in the legal crime drama Law & Order and the soap opera All My Children. During this time she also a child representative for the president Bill Clinton’s anti-drug campaign. Eventually Michelle landed a supporting role in the hit Nickelodeon sitcom The Adventures of Pete & Pete as the character Nona. It was here that her recognition grew into stardom.

1996 is the year when Michelle broke out into true stardom when she landed her first major film role as the character Harriet Welsh in the Nickelodeon film Harriet The Spy alongside Rosie O’ Donnell and friend and fellow actress, Vanessa Lee Chester. Michelle portrayed the film’s main protagonist and titular character who is an aspiring writer that spies on her closest acquaintances and surroundings, a passion that eventually takes a toll on her personal relationships.

From here Michelle’s star only shone brighter. She would later land a starring role on the science fiction sitcom Meego, which earned her a young artist award. She would also appear in Disney’s live action adaptation of Inspector Gadget alongside Matthew Broderick and Joely Fisher.

As the early 2000’s approached Michelle successfully conquered television and film on another level. In the year 2000 she landed the role of Dawn Summers on the hit supernatural drama Buffy The Vampire Slayer and would stay in the role for the next three years all through the show’s end. After co starring in popular films like Eurotrip (2004), Ice Princess (2005), and Black Christmas (2006) she landed the role of Georgina Sparks on the CW hit series Gossip Girl.

Michelle first struct a personal chord with me through Nickelodeon and Disney in Harriet the Spy and Inspector Gadget. The lively personality she had in Harriet the Spy actually made the idea of being a writer look very interesting to me even before I knew I wanted to be a writer and her portrayal of Penny in Inspector Gadget landed perfectly with me because she really embodied the personality of the character as seen in the original cartoon series.

To me her best acting was probably displayed when she played Buffy Summers’ younger sister Dawn in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Her character always had a mixed and complicated reception with fans, but for me the complexity of her character in the show was great development. I thought it was interesting watching her go from vital component to the plot to just trying to be an average young girl and aspiring young fighter was a quite a journey to watch.

On February 26th 2025. I myself and countless other 90’s babies were given some terrible news. Michelle Trachtenberg had passed away due to complications from diabetes related to a liver transplant she had received months earlier. I was genuinely heartbroken when I heard the news. I grew up with Michelle’s art and like countless others from my generation I related to her in a way that made me feel like she was a friend. So when she died all of us who have loved her forever felt like we lost a friend, because we did.

When Michelle passed away it felt like another part of my childhood had passed away as well. Seeing the tributes from her co-stars from her hits like Buffy, Gossip Girl and Harriet the Spy only made it more real, especially when her on screen sister Sarah Michelle Gellar posted a tribute to her in the form of an exchange their characters had on Buffy.

“Michelle listen to me. Listen... I love you. I will always love you. The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. I will be brave. I will live…for you” - Sarah Michelle Gellar.

This was not just her losing a friend, but a sister, a loved one and it definitely drew tears from me. The first thing I did after she passed away was started binge watching Buffy seasons 5 through 7 as I wrote everyday. You could say it was an animated way of working through personal grief, but it was also a way of remembering how she would always be with us through the stories she told us. Whether she was a spy, a princess or a supernatural fighter, Michelle Trachtenberg will always be remembered and revered as not just an amazing actress, but our friend from the screen. Our friend Michelle.

~Dedicated to the memory of our friend Michelle Christine Trachtenberg.