"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 starring 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.
Notable roles:
- Sydney Rutledge in Swans Crossing (1992)
- Kendall Hart in All My Children (60 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)
- The Headmaster in Do Revenge (2022)
- Kristin Ramsey in Wolf Pack (2023, also serves as executive producer)
Tropes associated with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s roles:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
