Michelle Trachtenberg, a teen actress who starred in “Gossip Girl” and “Harriet the Spy,” was found dead in her luxury Midtown Manhattan apartment early Wednesday, police sources said.
Trachtenberg, 39, was found unresponsive by her mother inside her apartment near Columbus Circle at 8 a.m.
Her mother called 911 and EMS responded but declared her dead at the scene, police said.
No foul play was suspected and the New York Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death, police said.
“The family requests privacy for their loss,” Trachtenberg’s representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement Wednesday.
Sources told ABC News the actress recently underwent a liver transplant and may have been experiencing complications.
An autopsy has been slated to determine how she died.
Pictures of Trachtenberg on social media appearing frail and gaunt drew concerns from fans that she was of ill health or battling addiction.
In January, she responded to fans’ concerns by saying she was happy and healthy.
“I’ve received several comments recently about my appearance,” she wrote on Instagram. “I have never had plastic surgery I am happy and healthy. Check yourself haters.”
Her death was first reported by the New York Post.
A native New Yorker, Trachtenberg was only 3 when she made her television debut in a Wisk detergent commercial.
Trachtenberg was 8 when she began played Nona Mecklenberg on Nickelodeon’s “The Adventures of Pete & Pete Nona” 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.
Rosie O’Donnell, who co-starred with the young actress in “Harriet the Spy,” was floored by the news of the actress’s death.
“Heartbreaking,” O’Donnell, 62, said in a statement to Us Weekly. “I loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped.”
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.
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.”
James Masters, who played Spike on Buffy, also mourned Trachtenberg’s death.
“We have lost a beautiful soul,” Masters said. “Michelle was fiercely intelligent, howlingly funny, and a very talented person. She died much too young, and leaves behind scores of people who knew and loved her.”
Trachtenberg’s family was “suffering the greatest loss anyone could bear,” he added.
“I hope everyone can give them space to heal in this most difficult time,” he wrote.
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.
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.
Trachtenberg’s other 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 writers Mark Kennedy and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.