Sarah Michelle Gellar (Bio)

Sarah Michelle Gellar was born on April 14 1977 in New York. An only child, she was raised on New York's Upper East Side by her mother, Rosellen Gellar, a schoolteacher.

Spotted in a Restaurant

At the age of four she was spotted by an agent whilst dining at a restaurant with her mother. A week later, she found herself in a TV film called An Invasion a Privacy, starring Valerie "Rhoda" Harper. A few weeks after that she was cast in her first TV commercial. The commercial was for Burger King in which she complained that McDonalds served skimpy burgers. McDonalds sued her employers, thus beginning the infamous "Battle of the Burgers". Listen as she describes why she still doesn't like McDonald's hamburgers (.wav format 46kb). Here is some of what she said "It was very weird to be four and to be called in as a witness," she recalls. Since that Burger King incident, Sarah appeared in more than one hundred commercials over the years.

Didn't Fit in At School

Sarah went to  Columbia Grammar School on 93rd Street (New York), across Central Park from where she lived. When Sarah was just seven years old her father divorced her mother. She will not discuss her father publicly.

During junior high school Sarah she says she went through an awkward phase. "That was my time to feel that I didn't know where I fit in. I tried to be jock. I tried to be cool. And I couldn't find my place."   

As a result of her acting success, Sarah felt isolated and was left out of things by her fellow students. Life became a little easier though when Sarah changed schools and started at New York's famous Professional Children's School. She said that at that stage her acting helped pay for her education.

The Big Break

At the age of fourteen, Sarah won her first major role as the young Jacqueline Bouvier in the NBC TV Mini Series, A Woman Named Jackie (1991). From strength to strength, in 1992 Sarah won the lead role of Sydney Rutledge in the syndicated teen soap opera Swan's Crossing.

She was nominated for an Emmy in 1994, although didn't win the award. But in 1995 she was nominated again and this time went home with the Emmy award for Outstanding Younger Actress.

"At 15, my role required me to make out with Michael Nader, who was 50. I was playing older than I was. But I wasn't older and the best thing I can say about those days is that it taught me to memorize a 60 page script in two hours and to hit my technical mark without blocking the other actor's light" (from a recent Nylon interview)

Not Just Attractive & Talented, but Smart Too!

She finished High School early, graduating from the Professional Children's School two years early (when she was 15) with a 96.7 grade point average [100 is perfect].  She said "I would have had a 97 average but I got a B+ in trigonometry, which was my fault for taking it in the ninth grade." Despite her acting success her mom made sure that school came first "If I ever got below an A- on a report card I had to stop working. That was why my studies always had to come first. If I had a big test, that was more important than a commercial or a job and at any point if I wanted to stop acting that was going to be my decision. After I graduated from high school I said I'd give myself two years to really focus on my career and then if it wasn't going well I would go back to college full time."

In 1996, Sarah Michelle Gellar was chosen to play the lead role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it was this role that was to gain her such enormous popularity.

Other Than Acting

Outside of her acting career, Sarah has taken 5 years of Tae Kwon Do, currently a brown belt, and has also studied boxing, kickboxing, street fighting, and gymnastics. She was also a competitive figure skater for 3 years and was ranked 3rd in the New York Sate regional competition. 

Other interests include Rollerblading, water skiing, and it is said that she occasionally goes Cliff Diving and Scuba Diving.  Of course she also enjoys shopping. 

Sarah currently lives in Los Angeles with her white Maltese Terrier called Thor.