Sarah Michelle Prinze (née Gellar /ˈɡɛlər/ GHEL-ər; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her acting debut in the television film An Invasion of Privacy (1983). A leading role in the syndicated teen drama series Swans Crossing (1992) was followed by her breakthrough as Kendall Hart in the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children (1993–1995), for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series.
Gellar received international recognition for her portrayal of Buffy Summers in the WB/UPN supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), which earned her five Teen Choice Awards, a Saturn Award, and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Her film credits include 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).
On television, Gellar has headlined the CW's Ringer (2011–2012), CBS's The Crazy Ones (2013–2014), and Paramount 's Wolf Pack (since 2023). She has also provided her voice for Adult Swim's Robot Chicken (2005–2018) and Netflix's Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021). In 2015, Gellar co-founded Foodstirs, an e-commerce startup selling baking kits, and in 2017, she released her own cookbook, Stirring Up Fun with Food.
Early life
Gellar was born in 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. In 1984, when she was seven, her parents divorced and she was raised by her mother on Manhattan's Upper East Side. 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. Gellar graduated from the Professional Children's School in 1994 as a "straight A" student with a 4.0 grade average. As she s
