Sarah Michelle Gellar is still the definitive 1990s TV badass for fans of the classic supernatural series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Gellar grew up in the entertainment industry from age 4 and could be seen in movies like Funny Farm and Crossroads (not the Britney Spears version) as a child. While studying acting at New York’s famed Professional Children’s School, she joined the cast of All My Children in 1993 and won a Daytime Emmy Award during her two-year stint on the soap.
Gellar was picked to star in the TV adaptation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she soon became one of the biggest stars of the 1990s. Before the dawn of the millennium, she extended her horror credentials with roles in both I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2, before playing against type as a manipulative temptress in 1999’s Cruel Intentions.
Amid working throughout the 2000s, starring in The Grudge, Scooby-Doo and Do Revenge, to name a few, Gellar has also raised two children with husband and I Know What You Did Last Summer costar Freddie Prinze Jr. Buffy fans even received news they’ve long hoped for in 2025 when Gellar confirmed she’s working on “the next chapter” of the Buffyverse.
Keep scrolling for a look back at Gellar’s incredible life and career:
1997-2003
Gellar’s breakthrough role as Buffy Summers on the WB (now The CW) series Buffy the Vampire Slayer came about as a stroke of luck. The actress originally auditioned for the role of high school mean girl Cordelia Chase (who was ultimately played by Charisma Carpenter), but Buffy creator Joss Whedon instead asked her to read for the lead role. The rest is history!
For seven seasons, the Scooby Gang saved the world countless times from vampires, aliens, mythical creatures and more than a few of Buffy’s disgruntled boyfriends (looking at you, Angel and Spike).
In 2023, Gellar admitted Buffy was one of her most grueling jobs because she had to carry the emotional weight of the storylines as well as the physical toll that came with the many fight scenes.
“There was a time when I had a reputation of being … difficult,” she confessed to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “Anyone that knows me knows it came from the fact that I always put in 100 percent. I never understood people who don’t. I’ve mellowed a bit in [my expectations of others] — I think because I got burned out.”
1997
While Gellar appeared in a few movies as a child, her first lead role was in 1997’s horror blockbuster I Know What You Did Last Summer. Gellar met her future husband Prinze while playing teens stalked by a hook-wielding killer, alongside Ryan Phillippe and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Prinze revealed to People in 2002 that he and Gellar “didn’t dig each other” at first but that all changed when they bonded away from the IKWYDLS set.
“One day I gave her a ride to the gym. We talked on the way up, and she was a cool chick,” he remembered.
Gellar and Prinze officially started dating in 2000. The couple’s budding romance coincided with I Know What You Did Last Summer becoming a horror phenomenon that has spawned three sequels — including an upcoming chapter that will bring back Prinze Jr. as Ray Bronson. Gellar denied rumors of her return for the new IKWYDLS installment.
1999
Cruel Intentions cast Gellar against type as Kathryn Merteuil, a scheming heiress who makes an illicit wager with her step-brother, Sebastian Valmont (Phillippe). In the film, Katherine challenges Sebastian to seduce their kind-hearted and chaste classmate, Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), or hand over the keys to his vintage Jaguar XK140.
An adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions was so successful that it spawned prequels, sequels, musicals and multiple TV reboot attempts.
Gellar explained in a later interview that Cruel Intentions still resonates because people find the actions of the self-obsessed teenage characters so “shocking.”
“Especially at that time, people didn’t give teenagers credit of being capable of so much emotion,” she joked. “Really, it was like, ‘I want to date this guy’ or ‘I want my first kiss,’ whereas we were like, ‘Oh no, I want the world and we’ll do whatever it takes to get there!’ It was really the first time you got to see younger people have those complicated feelings and emotions.”
2002
Gellar and Prinze tied the knot on September 1, 2002, in a ceremony officiated by Buffy choreographer (and A Walk to Remember director) Adam Shankman in Mexico. Shannen Doherty and Wilmer Valderrama were among the famous faces in attendance for the nuptials.
At the time of their wedding, Gellar and Prinze just starred together again in 2002’s Scooby-Doo movie — in which they played Mystery Inc’s Fred Jones and Daphne Blake, respectively.
Related: Freddie Prinze Jr. Through the Years: Movies, Family and More
Freddie Prinze Jr. has come a long way since he made his acting debut. Prinze Jr. was born in Los Angeles to Katherine Elaine Prinze and standup comedian Freddie Prinze. Upon his father’s death in 1977, Prinze Jr. and his mom relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a teen, Prinze Jr. imagined becoming a civil […]
The couple later told People that neither one was interested in marriage when they started dating, but Prinze felt strongly they’d be together forever.
“One day, I just knew we were gonna get married and I knew I was gonna propose,” he said. “I didn’t know when or how. And so I did and fortunately, she was on the same page. My instincts were correct.”
“I think for the first time it felt different right? Maybe it was the right time for both of us in our lives,” Gellar agreed.
2009
The pair welcomed their first child, Charlotte Grace Prinze, on September 19, 2009. Gellar wrote in 2016 that her “life changed completely” when Charlotte arrived.
“In that first moment when they put her on my chest, I felt the most powerful love I had ever known,” she wrote via Facebook. “Today she is the kindest, most loving, nurturing little girl I have ever met. I have accomplished a lot of great things in my life, but nothing compares to my love, my heart, Charlotte.”
2012
The Gellar-Prinze family expanded once again on September 12, 2012 when Rocky James Prinze was born.
“And just when I thought it wasn’t possible to love another human the way I loved my daughter, seven years ago today, my son was born, and I learned that was not the case,” Gellar wrote via Instagram in 2019. “Rocky, on the day you were born, I swear my heart tripled in size. Your laugh is the only medicine I will ever need, and your excitement for life is my motivation.
2013-2014
Gellar made her long-awaited TV return in CBS sitcom The Crazy Ones, in which she and Robin Williams played a father-daughter advertising industry duo. She won a People’s Choice Award for her work in The Crazy Ones, yet the show was canceled after only one season in May 2014.
When Williams died by suicide three months after The Crazy Ones concluded, Gellar told Us Weekly that her “life was better” because she’d known the legendary comic.
“To my children, he was ‘Uncle Robin,’ to everyone he worked with, he was the best boss anyone had ever known, and to me he was not just an inspiration but he was the Father I had always dreamed of having,” she added.
The star went on, “There are not enough adjectives to describe the light he was, to anyone that ever had the pleasure to meet him … I will miss him everyday, but I know the memory of him will live on. And to his family, I thank them for letting us know him and seeing the joy they brought him.”
2016
Gellar was next set to reprise her Cruel Intentions role in a TV spinoff that would have revolved around Kathryn Merteuil trying to gain control of her family’s business empire.
The 1999 movie’s writer-director Roger Kumble returned for the pilot, but NBC ultimately declined to move forward with the spinoff. In 2022, Gellar expressed relief that NBC passed on Cruel Intentions because she felt the project’s tone wouldn’t have worked.
“That was a whole crazy time,” she told The New York Times. “Nothing against NBC, but Cruel Intentions is straight streaming. On the first day, I was like, ‘This isn’t working.’ It’s just not a network show. And if it is a network show, it’s not my Cruel Intentions. So, I was actually grateful.”
Her instincts were correct as Prime Video eventually rebooted Cruel Intentions for streaming (without Gellar’s involvement), though even then, it only lasted a single season.
2021-2023
Buffy cast members Amber Benson and Charisma Carpenter were among several of series creator Whedon’s former coworkers to accuse him of toxic workplace behavior and abuse of power.
Gellar offered support to those speaking out in her own statement, insisting that she did not want to be “forever associated with the name Joss Whedon.”
“I am more focused on raising my family and surviving a pandemic currently so I will not be making any further statements at this time, but I stand with all survivors of abuse and I’m proud of them for speaking out,” she added.
Whedon later conceded to New York Magazine that he was not “mannerly” during his time on Buffy, but he denied that he’d ever crossed professional lines with his cast and crew.
In 2023, Gellar explained to The Hollywood Reporter why she’d refrained from speaking about her own experience with Whedon.
“I’ve come to a good place with it, where it’s easier to talk about,” Gellar noted. “I’ll never tell my full story because I don’t get anything out of it. I’ve said all I’m going to say because nobody wins. Everybody loses.”
Prinze backed up his wife’s comments by insisting she dealt “with a lot of bulls***” on Buffy throughout its seven seasons.
“The stuff they pressed upon her, without any credit or real salary, while she was often the only one doing 15-hour days … yet she was still able to get the message of that character out every single week and do it with pride and do it professionally,” he added.
2025
Buffy fans were stunned when it was reported in February 2025 that amid her role in Dexter: Original Sin, Gellar was also developing “the next chapter in the Buffyverse” for Hulu, along with director Chloé Zhao and producers Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman. Whedon is not involved in the series.
Gellar’s involvement in the project was particularly unexpected because she frequently downplayed any interest in returning to the Buffy franchise over the past 20 years.
“I have always listened to the fans and heard your desire to revisit Buffy and her world, but it was not something I could do unless I was sure we would get it right,” she wrote via Instagram. “This has been a long process, and it’s not over yet. I promise you, we will only make this show if we know we can do it right. And I will tell you that we are on the path there.”
The Buffy actress continued, “I feel so lucky to be on this journey with these four unbelievably talented women, all of whom love Buffy as much as I do. And as much as you do. Thank you to all the fans who never stopped asking for this. This will be for you.”
While the Buffy spinoff is still in development 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, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. I will be brave. I will live… for you.’”
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