Sarah Michelle Gellar

Sarah Michelle Gellar (born April 14, 1977) is an American actress.

Gellar was born on Long Island, New York on April 14, 1977.

She is the only child of Rosellen (née Greenfield), a nursery school teacher, and Arthur Gellar, a garment worker.

Both of her parents are Jewish, though Gellar's family also had a Christmas tree during her childhood.

During the 1980s, Gellar played minor roles in the films Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984), Crossroads (1986), and Funny Farm (1988), though her scenes in the latter two were cut.

A 1982 television spot, in which she claimed Burger King made larger and better tasting burgers than competitor McDonald's, was arguably the first attack ad introduced in the fast food industry.

Executives at McDonald's parent company were so enraged that they sued all parties involved, naming Gellar and reportedly banning her from eating at the food chain.

After being spotted by a talent agent as a young child, she made her film debut at age six in the television film An Invasion of Privacy (1983).

The film aired on CBS in January 1983.

While growing up, Gellar appeared in numerous television commercials for such brands as Shake 'n Bake, Avon, and Burger King.

In 1984, when she was seven, her parents divorced and she was raised by her mother on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Gellar appeared in a safety skit during the November 11, 1985 episode of Late Night with David Letterman, and guest starred in various television series, such as Spenser: For Hire and Crossbow.

At the age of nine, she acted in the off-Broadway production The Widow Claire, as well as in the Kids Klassics Sing Along videos Camp Melody and USS Songboat.

She obtained a larger role as the daughter of a prostitute in the B thriller High Stakes (1989).

In 1989, she briefly served as a co-host of the syndicated teen talk show Girl Talk.

Gellar portrayed 13-year-old Mollie in the initial production of Neil Simon's play Jake's Women, which ran at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, from March to April 1990.

In 1991, she was cast as a young Jacqueline Bouvier in A Woman Named Jackie.

The miniseries won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series.

A leading role in the short-lived teen drama series Swans Crossing (1992) was followed by her breakthrough as Kendall Hart on the ABC soap opera All My Children (1993–1995), for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award.

Gellar obtained her first leading role, as a mayor's manipulative daughter, in the 1992 syndicated teen serial Swans Crossing, which chronicled the lives of a group of wealthy teenagers.

Gellar graduated from the Professional Children's School in 1994 as a "straight A" student with a 4.0 grade average.

As she spent significant time working on All My Children while "trying to graduate", the majority of her senior year was completed through guided study.

At the age of four, Gellar was spotted by an agent in a restaurant in Upper Manhattan.

Two weeks later, she auditioned for a part in the television film An Invasion of Privacy.

At the audition, she read both her own lines and those of Valerie Harper, impressing the directors enough to cast her in the role.

Gellar achieved international recognition for her portrayal of Buffy Summers on the WB/UPN series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), which earned her five Teen Choice Awards, a Saturn Award, and a Golden Globe nomination.

Her films have grossed in excess of US$570 million at the worldwide box office, with credits including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Scream 2 (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), Scooby-Doo (2002), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), The Grudge (2004), Southland Tales (2006), TMNT (2007), and Do Revenge (2022).

While growing up, she lost contact with her father, from whom she remained estranged until his death in 2001.

She once described him as "non-existent", and stated: "My father, you can just say, is not in the picture. I'm not being deliberately evasive about him, it's just that there's so little to say."

Gellar was a competitive figure skater, once finishing in third place at a New York State regional competition, as well as having a black belt in taekwondo.

With her single mother working "just above the poverty line", Gellar received a partial scholarship to study at the Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, where she experienced bullying.

She remarked: "I was different and that's the one thing you can't be at school, because you're ostracised. I didn't have the money these kids had".

As a working child actress, she was not present in class for a considerable amount of time, and recalled having "more absences in the first month than you're supposed to have for an entire year".

She then briefly attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, but dropped out due to acting obligations.

In a 2004 interview, she recalled: "I wasn't allowed to eat there. It was tough because, when you're a little kid, McDonald's is where all your friends have their birthday parties, so I missed out on a lot of apple pies."

She also worked as a model for Wilhelmina.

Outside film, Gellar headlined The CW's Ringer (2011–2012), CBS's The Crazy Ones (2013–2014), and Paramount+'s Wolf Pack (2023), as well as providing voice work for Robot Chicken (2005–2018), Star Wars Rebels (2015–2016), and Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021).

In 2015, she co-founded Foodstirs, an e-commerce baking company.

She released her own cookbook, Stirring Up Fun with Food, in 2017.

Gellar is married to actor Freddie Prinze Jr..