Michelle Trachtenberg Biography

Michelle Trachtenberg
Biography

Birth Name
Michelle Christine Trachtenberg
Date of birth (location)
11 October 1985
New York, New York, USA

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A New York based child actor who had her juiciest chance as the title role in the 1996 feature film "Harriet the Spy", Michelle Trachtenberg moved into primetime series in the fall of 1997 playing one of three children who choose the extraterrestrial Bronson Pinchot to be their nanny on "Meego" (CBS). Trachtenberg has been acting since the age of four, when she broke into the business the way so many other kid actors have--through TV commercials. By the time she was eight, Trachtenberg was appearing regularly on the Nickelodeon series "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" and also did two years in the recurring role of the autistic Lily Montgomery on the daytime drama "All My Children" (ABC).

She made her TV-movie debut in "Christmas in My Hometown" (CBS, 1996) and has also guest starred on "Law & Order" (NBC). But it was as the fearless investigator being nurtured by Rosie O'Donnell in "Harriet the Spy"—Nickelodeon's first feature film—that Trachtenberg joined the ranks of viable kid star performers. Her profile was raised higher in 2000, when she joined the cast of the popular cult series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in its last season on The WB (2000-01). playing the title character's hitherto unknown sister Dawn. When the series jumped networks to UPN in the fall of 2001, Trachtenberg was along, continuing to assist her older sibling in the fight against supernatural creatures.

In 1999, she appeared as Penny in “Inspector Gadget”, the live-action rendition of the popular cartoon. After traipsing the Old World in the long forgotten teen sex comedy “Eurotrip”, she starred in “Ice Princess” (2005) as a high school student who puts her Harvard ambitions on hold to pursue dreams of becoming a champion ice skater.