"Buffy's very similar to me to me when I was growing up. A child in an adult world, sort of trapped between the two. Does Buffy go to the prom or does she save the world from demons?"
Sarah Michelle Prinze (neé Gellar, born April 14, 1977 in Long Island, New York) is a Daytime Emmy Award winning actress who is most famous for her role as the eponymous character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You may also know her as Daphne in Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, as well as staring in classic horror movies such as The Grudge & The Grudge 2, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Scream 2. Gellar has six Teen Choice Awards and a People's Choice Award under her belt.
She's been married to Freddie Prinze Jr. since 2002 and they have two children together.
Tropes associated with Sarah Michelle Gellar:
- A-Cup Angst: Averted. A TV Guide interviewer once asked what she thought of a rumour that she'd had breast enhancement surgery. Gellar's response was to cacklenote , point to her breasts, and say "If I'd paid for these, don't you think I'd want them to look better?"
- Annoying Laugh: To the point that she tries not to laugh in public when she can help it. Her hubbie, Freddie Prinze Jr., has described her laugh as "a hyena suffering through an epileptic fit."
- Award Snub: Critics were outraged when Gellar wasn't even nominated for an Emmy for her work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Also subverted; while she never got recognition for the role from the Emmys, she did win six Teen Choice Awards over the course of Buffy's run.
- Dawson Casting: She almost always played a teenager when she was in her mid- and late-20s, to the point that it was jarring when she didn't. For example, in the same year (1999) she played a high schooler in Cruel Intentions and a co-owner of a restaurant in Simply Irresistible.
- Deadpan Snarker: See A-Cup Angst above for one example.
- Happily Married: to Freddie Prinze Jr., who also plays her love interest in Scooby-Doo (2002).
- I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Although she's done other work, including situational comedy, she only really has a single character; a greater or less intense version of the Action Girl she played in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also, people who know Gellar personally have said that when she acts, she's often just playing Sarah Michelle Gellar in a costume.
- Ironic Fear: Starting with Buffy's second season, almost all of the graveyard scenes were filmed in fake cemeteries. This was a concession to Sarah, who is phobically afraid of the real thing. And this was after she actually needed to film a scene where she's buried alive in the episode "Nightmares".
- One of Us: To call her a huge Buffy/Angel shipper would be putting it lightly, at best. Whenever she’s asked to name her favorite of Buffy’s love interests, she will, without a moments hesitation, say Angel. She has on various occasions referred to them as “soul mates”, saying that they are two bodies that share one soul. She has also stated that whenever she was doing emotional scenes involving the characters, she wasn’t acting.
- Her dedication to the ship is one of the MANY reasons she is outspoken about her intense dislike of the sixth season.
- Real Life Writes the Plot:
- In the Buffy episode "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", her character is transformed into a rat by a witch's curse. This was due to Sarah being booked to host Saturday Night Live, leading to the writers turning Buffy into a rat so she could get some well-earned rest.
- In the episode "Gone", Buffy gets an Important Haircut because Sarah had asked to cut her hair shorter in real life.
Notable roles:
- Sydney Rutledge in Swans Crossing (1992)
- Kendall Hart in All My Children (27 episodes, 1993-1995)
- Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (144 episodes, 1997-2003) and Angel (2 episodes, 1999-2000)
- Helen Shivers in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
- Casey "Cici" Cooper in Scream 2 (1997)
- Marie (voice) in King of the Hill ("They Call Me Bobby Love", 1998)
- Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions (1999)
- Debbie in Sex and the City ("Escape From New York", 2000)
- Daphne in Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed (2002 and 2004)
- Gina Vendetti (voice) in The Simpsons ("The Wandering Juvie", 2004)
- Karen Davies in The Grudge & The Grudge 2 (2004 and 2006)
- Krysta Now in Southland Tales (2006)
- Ella in Happily N'Ever After (2007)
- April O'Neil (voice) in TMNT (2007)
- Sorrow/Trista in The Air I Breathe (2008)
- Bridget Cafferty and Siobhan Martin in Ringer (2011-2012)
- Herself in Call of Duty: Black Ops (2011)
- Veronika in Veronika Decides to Die (2012).
- Sydney Roberts in The Crazy Ones (2013-2014)
- The Seventh Sister in Star Wars Rebels (5 episodes, 2015-2016)
- Teela in Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021-present)
