Actress Michelle Trachtenberg found dead in Manhattan apartment

NEW YORK - Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who gained notoriety for her roles in "Gossip Girl" and "Harriet the Spy," has died at the age of 39.

What we know:

According to an NYPD statement, police responded to a 911 call on Wednesday shortly after 8 a.m. at a luxury residential tower in Midtown where "officers observed a 39-year-old female unconscious and unresponsive,"

Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. No foul play was suspected and the New York Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death, police said.

Who is Michelle Trachtenberg?

The backstory:

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.

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.

Actress Michelle Trachtenberg attends the 28th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party on February 9, 2020, in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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.

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.

Her other credits included "Ice Princess" in 2005 — playing a math prodigy and aspiring figure skater — and the 2004 teen sex comedy "EuroTrip." 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.