Michelle Trachtenberg, the actress who rose to fame as a precocious child star in Harriet the Spy and in 2000, she landed the role of Dawn Summers on The WB hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died, according to the New York City police. She was 39.
Police responded to a 911 call on Wednesday just after 8am local time and found a woman unconscious and unresponsive inside a Manhattan apartment. She was later identified as Trachtenberg, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
EMS responded to the location and pronounced the victim deceased.
“Criminality is not suspected,” the NYPD said in a statement, adding that the investigation remains ongoing. Trachtenberg’s official cause of death will come from the Medical Examiner’s office.
Earlier on Wednesday, an NYPD source told CNN that Trachtenberg reportedly had a recent medical issue and that her death appeared to be related to natural causes and not suspicious.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Trachtenberg for comment.
With her cheeky demeanour and sharp comedic timing, Trachtenberg fit in naturally with the over-the-top humour that dominated Nickelodeon in the ’90s. She first gained attention with a role on The Adventures of Pete & Pete and went on to star in Nickelodeon’s first feature film, 1996’s Harriet the Spy. In the latter, she shared the screen with Rosie O’Donnell, young Gregory Smith and J Smith-Cameron, who would go on to star in Succession and played her mother in the project. CNN
