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Michelle Trachtenberg extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Michelle Trachtenberg
Michelle Trachtenberg, 2008
Born	Michelle Christine Trachtenberg October 11, 1985 (1985-10-11) (age 24) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1991 – present

Michelle Christine Trachtenberg (born October 11, 1985) is an American television and film actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Dawn Summers in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the show's final three seasons, Penny in the 1999 film adaptation of Inspector Gadget, and Harriet M. Welch in Harriet the Spy. Trachtenberg also appeared on House and played Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl, and recently co-starred in the movie 17 Again, as Maggie. She is currently one of the stars in the fall 2009 NBC drama Mercy.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Filmography 3.1 Television 4 References 5 External links

Early life

Trachtenberg was born in New York City, the younger of two daughters of Lana, a bank manager, and Michael Trachtenberg, a fiber-optics engineer.¹ Her father is from Germany and her mother was born in Russia; Trachtenberg can speak Russian fluently.²³ Her family is Jewish and Trachtenberg celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah;⁴⁵⁶ her grandparents live in Israel.⁷ Trachtenberg was raised, along with older sister Irene, in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, where she attended P.S. 99 Elementary School and The Bay Academy for the Arts And Sciences Junior High School.⁸ She later attended Notre Dame High School with Katharine McPhee, Rachel Bilson, and Kirsten Dunst.

Career

Trachtenberg made her first television appearance at the age of three, in a commercial for Wisk Detergent.⁹ She went on to feature in over 100 more commercials.⁹ She appeared in her first credited role as Nona F. Mecklenberg in The Adventures of Pete & Pete from 1994 until 1996. During the same period she played Lily Montgomery in All My Children,¹⁰ in which she first worked with future Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar.⁶

Trachtenberg's film career began in 1996 with the lead role in Harriet the Spy. She then returned to television for Meego, for which she won a Young Artist Award. She returned to film in 1999 for Inspector Gadget, as the gadget-master's niece, Penny. She also starred in the film Can't Be Heaven. In the summer of 2000, Trachtenberg took up the role of Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She remained in the role until the show ended in 2003. She also hosted Truth or Scare from 2001 to 2003. After Buffy and Truth or Scare, she returned to film in the comedy movie EuroTrip, co-starring Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts and Travis Wester and directed by Jeff Schaffer. She also had a recurring role in the HBO series Six Feet Under as Celeste, a spoiled pop star for whom Keith Charles served as a bodyguard.

In March 2005, Trachtenberg played the title character in Walt Disney Pictures' family comedy–drama Ice Princess with Kim Cattrall. In the film, Trachtenberg played a science whiz named Casey Carlyle who gives up her future academic life in order to pursue her newfound dream of being a professional figure skater.

In April 2006 Trachtenberg guest-starred in the episode of House, M.D., "Safe". She revealed on the December 22, 2006, episode of Late Night With Conan O'Brien that House is her favorite show, she is friends with one of the producers and she asked to be a guest star. Trachtenberg also said she has a crush on Hugh Laurie, and during the scene in the elevator in which House searches her genital area for a tick, Trachtenberg said she played a joke on Laurie by putting a note between her legs that read "I ♥ You".

In November 2006, Trachtenberg guest-starred in the sixth season of the Emmy-nominated crime drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the episode "Weeping Willow", she played the role of Willow, a kidnapped video blogger based on lonelygirl15. Trachtenberg also made a cameo in the Fall Out Boy music video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" (with fellow Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast member Seth Green), Joaquin Phoenix-directed video "Tired of Being Sorry" for Balthazar Getty's band Ringside, and Trapt's video "Echo". In 2007, she was cast as the female lead in an ABC comedy pilot called The Hill, set in Washington, D.C.¹¹ Trachtenberg provided the voice of Tika Waylan for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, a direct-to-video animated movie based on the novel of the same name.¹²

Trachtenberg appeared on the CW hit show Gossip Girl as Georgina Sparks, who recently left rehab and brings back the dark past Serena van der Woodsen desperately wants to leave behind.¹³ She returned to the show for a multi-episode story arc towards the end of the second season.¹⁴ Trachtenberg will be appearing in at least three episodes of the third season.¹⁵ Beginning in fall 2009, Trachtenberg is a cast member on the NBC drama Mercy.

Trachtenberg appeared in the 2009 movie 17 Again alongside Zac Efron, Sterling Knight and Matthew Perry.

She has a small role in the comedy film Cop Out.¹⁶

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1995	Melissa	Lena	uncredited
1996	Harriet the Spy	Harriet M. Welsch
1996	Christmas in My Hometown	Noelle Murphy	a.k.a. A Holiday for Love
1998	Richie Rich's Christmas Wish	Gloria
1999	Inspector Gadget	Penny
2000	A Father's Choice	Kelly McClain
	Can't Be Heaven	Julie
2004	EuroTrip	Jenny
	Mysterious Skin	Wendy
2005	Ice Princess	Casey Carlyle	Leading role
	The Dive From Clausen's Pier	Carrie Beal
2006	Beautiful Ohio	Sandra
	Black Christmas	Melissa
2007	The Hill	Maggie Rogers
2008	Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight	Tika	voice-only
	The Circuit	Kylie Shines
2009	17 Again	Maggie O'Donnell
	Against the Current	Suzanne
2010	Cop Out	Ava Monroe
	Young Americans	Kitchelle Storms

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1991	Law & Order	Dinah Driscoll	Uncredited
1993	Clarissa Explains It All	Elsie Soaperstein
1993–1996	All My Children	Lily Benton Montgomery #1
1994–1996	The Adventures of Pete & Pete	Nona F. Mecklenberg	recurring season 2, regular season 3
1996	Dave's World	Angela
	Space Cases	Prankster #1
1997	Meego	Maggie Parker
1998	Guys Like Us	Katie
2000–2003	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Dawn Summers	66 episodes
2001–2003	Truth or Scare	Herself
2004	Best Week Ever
	Six Feet Under	Celeste	4 episodes
2006	House M.D.	Melinda Bardach	Episode "Safe"
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Lisa Willow Tyler	Episode "Weeping Willow"
2006–2007	Robot Chicken	Dina Lohan, Woman, Wife, Cleaning Woman, Woman, Mugging Victim, Gummi-Bear	voice-only
2008–present	Gossip Girl	Georgina Sparks	recurring; 10 episodes
2009–present	Mercy	Chloe Payne
	The Super Hero Squad Show	Valkyrie	voice only

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Trachtenberg

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michelle Trachtenberg

• Michelle Trachtenberg at the Internet Movie Database
• Michelle Trachtenberg at TV.com
• Michelle Trachtenberg at MySpace

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Persondata
NAME	Trachtenberg, Michelle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	October 11, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH