Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Career and Life: From ‘Buffy’ to Family

Sarah Michelle Gellar continues to be the definitive Nineteen Nineties TV badass for followers of the traditional supernatural sequence Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Gellar grew up within the leisure trade from age 4 and could possibly be seen in films like Humorous Farm and Crossroads (not the Britney Spears model) as a toddler. Whereas learning performing at New York’s famed Skilled Kids’s Faculty, she joined the solid of All My Kids in 1993 and received a Daytime Emmy Award throughout her two-year stint on the cleaning soap.

Gellar was picked to star within the TV adaptation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he or she quickly turned one of many greatest stars of the Nineteen Nineties. Earlier than the daybreak of the millennium, she prolonged her horror credentials with roles in each I Know What You Did Final Summer season and Scream 2, earlier than taking part in in opposition to kind as a manipulative temptress in 1999’s Merciless Intentions.

Amid working all through the 2000s, starring in The Grudge, Scooby-Doo and Do Revenge, to call just a few, Gellar has additionally raised two youngsters with husband and I Know What You Did Final Summer season costar Freddie Prinze Jr. Buffy followers even obtained information they’ve lengthy hoped for in 2025 when Gellar confirmed she’s engaged on “the subsequent chapter” of the Buffyverse.

Hold scrolling for a glance again at Gellar’s unimaginable life and profession:

1997-2003

Gellar’s breakthrough position as Buffy Summers on the WB (now The CW) sequence Buffy the Vampire Slayer happened as a stroke of luck. The actress initially auditioned for the position of highschool imply woman Cordelia Chase (who was finally performed by Charisma Carpenter), however Buffy creator Joss Whedon as a substitute requested her to learn for the lead position. The remainder is historical past!

For seven seasons, the Scooby Gang saved the world numerous instances from vampires, aliens, legendary creatures and quite a lot of of Buffy’s disgruntled boyfriends ( you, Angel and Spike).

In 2023, Gellar admitted Buffy was one in every of her most grueling jobs as a result of she needed to carry the emotional weight of the storylines in addition to the bodily toll that got here with the numerous combat scenes.

“There was a time after I had a status of being … tough,” she confessed to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “Anybody that is aware of me is aware of it got here from the truth that I at all times put in one hundred pc. I by no means understood individuals who don’t. I’ve mellowed a bit in [my expectations of others] — I feel as a result of I received burned out.”

1997

Whereas Gellar appeared in just a few films as a toddler, her first lead position was in 1997’s horror blockbuster I Know What You Did Final Summer season. Gellar met her future husband Prinze whereas taking part in teenagers stalked by a hook-wielding killer, alongside Ryan Phillippe and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Prinze revealed to Folks in 2002 that he and Gellar “didn’t dig one another” at first however that every one modified once they bonded away from the IKWYDLS set.

“Sooner or later I gave her a journey to the health club. We talked on the best way up, and he or she was a cool chick,” he remembered.

Gellar and Prinze formally began relationship in 2000. The couple’s budding romance coincided with I Know What You Did Final Summer season turning into a horror phenomenon that has spawned three sequels — together with an upcoming chapter that can deliver again Prinze Jr. as Ray Bronson. Gellar denied rumors of her return for the brand new IKWYDLS installment.

1999

Merciless Intentions solid Gellar in opposition to kind as Kathryn Merteuil, a scheming heiress who makes a bootleg wager together with her step-brother, Sebastian Valmont (Phillippe). Within the movie, Katherine challenges Sebastian to seduce their kind-hearted and chaste classmate, Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), or hand over the keys to his classic Jaguar XK140.

An adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Harmful Liaisons, Merciless Intentions was so profitable that it spawned prequels, sequels, musicals and a number of TV reboot makes an attempt.

Gellar defined in a later interview that Merciless Intentions nonetheless resonates as a result of individuals discover the actions of the self-obsessed teenage characters so “surprising.”

“Particularly at the moment, individuals didn’t give youngsters credit score of being able to a lot emotion,” she joked. “Actually, it was like, ‘I need to date this man’ or ‘I would like my first kiss,’ whereas we had been like, ‘Oh no, I would like the world and we’ll do no matter it takes to get there!’ It was actually the primary time you bought to see youthful individuals have these sophisticated emotions and feelings.”

2002

Gellar and Prinze tied the knot on September 1, 2002, in a ceremony officiated by Buffy choreographer (and A Stroll to Bear in mind director) Adam Shankman in Mexico. Shannen Doherty and Wilmer Valderrama had been among the many well-known faces in attendance for the nuptials.

On the time of their marriage ceremony, Gellar and Prinze simply starred collectively once more in 2002’s Scooby-Doo film — wherein they performed Thriller Inc’s Fred Jones and Daphne Blake, respectively.

Associated: Freddie Prinze Jr. By means of the Years: Motion pictures, Household and Extra

Freddie Prinze Jr. has come a good distance since he made his performing debut. Prinze Jr. was born in Los Angeles to Katherine Elaine Prinze and standup comic Freddie Prinze. Upon his father’s demise in 1977, Prinze Jr. and his mother relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a teen, Prinze Jr. imagined turning into a civil […]

The couple later advised Folks that neither one was inquisitive about marriage once they began relationship, however Prinze felt strongly they’d be collectively endlessly.

“Sooner or later, I simply knew we had been gonna get married and I knew I used to be gonna suggest,” he stated. “I didn’t know when or how. And so I did and luckily, she was on the identical web page. My instincts had been right.”

“I feel for the primary time it felt totally different proper? Perhaps it was the proper time for each of us in our lives,” Gellar agreed.

2009

The pair welcomed their first little one, Charlotte Grace Prinze, on September 19, 2009. Gellar wrote in 2016 that her “life modified utterly” when Charlotte arrived.

“In that first second once they put her on my chest, I felt probably the most highly effective love I had ever identified,” she wrote by way of Fb. “Right this moment she is the kindest, most loving, nurturing little woman I’ve ever met. I’ve completed lots of nice issues in my life, however nothing compares to my love, my coronary heart, Charlotte.”

2012

The Gellar-Prinze household expanded as soon as once more on September 12, 2012 when Rocky James Prinze was born.

“And simply after I thought it wasn’t potential to like one other human the best way I liked my daughter, seven years in the past in the present day, my son was born, and I realized that was not the case,” Gellar wrote by way of Instagram in 2019. “Rocky, on the day you had been born, I swear my coronary heart tripled in dimension. Your snort is the one drugs I’ll ever want, and your pleasure for all times is my motivation.

2013-2014

Gellar made her long-awaited TV return in CBS sitcom The Loopy Ones, wherein she and Robin Williams performed a father-daughter promoting trade duo. She received a Folks’s Selection Award for her work in The Loopy Ones, but the present was canceled after just one season in Could 2014.

When Williams died by suicide three months after The Loopy Ones concluded, Gellar advised Us Weekly that her “life was higher” as a result of she’d identified the legendary comedian.

“To my youngsters, he was ‘Uncle Robin,’ to everybody he labored with, he was the perfect boss anybody had ever identified, and to me he was not simply an inspiration however he was the Father I had at all times dreamed of getting,” she added.

The star went on, “There are usually not sufficient adjectives to explain the sunshine he was, to anybody that ever had the pleasure to fulfill him … I’ll miss him on a regular basis, however I do know the reminiscence of him will dwell on. And to his household, I thank them for letting us know him and seeing the enjoyment they introduced him.”

2016

Gellar was subsequent set to reprise her Merciless Intentions position in a TV spinoff that will have revolved round Kathryn Merteuil making an attempt to achieve management of her household’s enterprise empire.

The 1999 film’s writer-director Roger Kumble returned for the pilot, however NBC finally declined to maneuver ahead with the spinoff. In 2022, Gellar expressed reduction that NBC handed on Merciless Intentions as a result of she felt the challenge’s tone wouldn’t have labored.

“That was a complete loopy time,” she advised The New York Instances. “Nothing in opposition to NBC, however Merciless Intentions is straight streaming. On the primary day, I used to be like, ‘This isn’t working.’ It’s simply not a community present. And if it’s a community present, it’s not my Merciless Intentions. So, I used to be really grateful.”

Her instincts had been right as Prime Video ultimately rebooted Merciless Intentions for streaming (with out Gellar’s involvement), although even then, it solely lasted a single season.

2021-2023

Buffy solid members Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter had been amongst a number of of sequence creator Whedon’s former coworkers to accuse him of poisonous office conduct and abuse of energy.

Gellar supplied assist to these talking out in her personal assertion, insisting that she didn’t need to be “endlessly related to the title Joss Whedon.”

“I’m extra targeted on elevating my household and surviving a pandemic at the moment so I cannot be making any additional statements presently, however I stand with all survivors of abuse and I’m happy with them for talking out,” she added.

Whedon later conceded to New York Journal that he was not “mannerly” throughout his time on Buffy, however he denied that he’d ever crossed skilled strains along with his solid and crew.

In 2023, Gellar defined to The Hollywood Reporter why she’d kept away from talking about her personal expertise with Whedon.

“I’ve come to place with it, the place it’s simpler to speak about,” Gellar famous. “I’ll by no means inform my full story as a result of I don’t get something out of it. I’ve stated all I’m going to say as a result of no person wins. All people loses.”

Prinze backed up his spouse’s feedback by insisting she dealt “with lots of bulls***” on Buffy all through its seven seasons.

“The stuff they pressed upon her, with none credit score or actual wage, whereas she was usually the one one doing 15-hour days … but she was nonetheless in a position to get the message of that character out each single week and do it with delight and do it professionally,” he added.

2025

Buffy followers had been surprised when it was reported in February 2025 that amid her position in Dexter: Authentic Sin, Gellar was additionally creating “the subsequent chapter within the Buffyverse” for Hulu, together with director Chloé Zhao and producers Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman. Whedon is just not concerned within the sequence.

Gellar’s involvement within the challenge was significantly surprising as a result of she often downplayed any curiosity in returning to the Buffy franchise over the previous 20 years.

“I’ve at all times listened to the followers and heard your need to revisit Buffy and her world, however it was not one thing I may do until I used to be certain we’d get it proper,” she wrote by way of Instagram. “This has been a protracted course of, and it’s not over but. I promise you, we are going to solely make this present if we all know we are able to do it proper. And I’ll inform you that we’re on the trail there.”

The Buffy actress continued, “I really feel so fortunate to be on this journey with these 4 unbelievably gifted ladies, all of whom love Buffy as a lot as I do. And as a lot as you do. Thanks to all of the followers who by no means stopped asking for this. This can be for you.”

Whereas the Buffy spinoff continues to be in improvement at Hulu, Gellar was dealt a tragic blow when former costar and onscreen sibling Michelle Trachtenberg died at age 39 in February 2025.

Gellar quoted an iconic scene between their characters in her tribute, “‘Michelle, take heed to me. Pay attention. I really like you. I’ll at all times love you. The toughest factor on this world, is to dwell in it. I can be courageous. I’ll dwell… for you.’”