Michelle Trachtenberg - Portrait Session at Universal Studios 2009

Michelle Christine Trachtenberg (born October 11, 1985) is an American television and film actress. She is known for playing Dawn Summers in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the show's final three seasons, Penny in the 1999 film adaptation of Inspector Gadget, Wendy in Mysterious Skin, Jenny in EuroTrip, and Harriet M. Welsch in Harriet the Spy. Trachtenberg also appeared in the television series Gossip Girl as Georgina Sparks, Mercy and more recently has had roles in the films 17 Again and Cop Out.

Trachtenberg was born in New York City, the youngest of two daughters of Lana, a bank manager, and Michael Trachtenberg, a fiber-optics engineer. Her father is from Germany and her mother was born in Russia; Trachtenberg can speak Russian fluently. Her family is Jewish and Trachtenberg celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah; her grandparents live in Israel. Trachtenberg was raised, along with older sister Irene, in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, where she attended P.S. 99 Elementary School and The Bay Academy for the Arts And Sciences Junior High School. She later attended Notre Dame High School with Katharine McPhee, Rachel Bilson, and Kirsten Dunst