Sarah Michelle Gellar Biography

Name: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Born: 14 April 1977 (Age: 34)
Where: New York, New York, USA
Height: 5' 3"
Awards: 1 Golden Globe nomination

As Buffy The Vampire Slayer, high-kicking, demon-walloping Sarah Michelle Gellar was world-famed as the Teen Queen of Scream. A fantasy for boys and a role model for girls, she was one of the Internet's main attractions. Yet, unlike most of her peers, she's not simply a product of the late Nineties' tide of programmes and movies aimed at kids (though she did surf that wave with great aplomb). She was an Emmy-winning actress way before Buffy and, a full decade before that, she was the single most controversial 4-year-old in America. These would be helpful qualifications in her search for post-Buffy film stardom.

Sarah Michelle Gellar was born in New York on the 14th of April, 1977, to father Arthur and mother Rosellen, a nursery school teacher. Her parents were not well off. No matter, because Sarah was soon supporting herself. At age 4, she was spotted by an agent while in an Uptown Manhattan restaurant with her mother, watching other kids in a talent contest. Within two weeks, she was auditioning for a part in An Invasion Of Privacy, a TV movie dealing with rape, starring Valerie "Rhoda" Harper and featuring Carol Kane and Jeff Daniels. At the audition, she was supposed to read with Harper but she'd already left for the day, so the precocious Sarah read her own lines and, putting on Harper's voice, hers too. The role, unsurprisingly, went her way.

Before the movie was aired, Sarah would already be notorious. The star of hundreds of adverts over the years, one of her first was for Burger King. This was no ordinary advert. Indeed, it was the first advert where a company claimed to out-do its rivals and named names. Thus tiny Sarah criticised McDonalds for the paltriness of their burgers and claimed to only ever eat in BK. McDonalds, naturally, were profoundly unhappy with this, and sued BK, ad agency J. Walter Thompson AND Sarah. The case would be settled out of court but, before agreement was reached, 4-year-old Sarah appeared in court as a witness for the defence. Later, invited to a friend's party at McDonalds and thinking she was bound by the "truth in advertising" act, she wore a big hat and dark glasses. These days there's no such problem - McDonalds being keen sponsors of Buffy.

Sarah's next role was as Burt Young's daughter in Over The Brooklyn Bridge, a comedy where young Jewish fellow Elliott Gould has to dump Catholic girlfriend Margaux Hemingway in order to get a loan from his uncle. Carol Kane would again feature. But Sarah's main income now was from ads, and it wasn't shabby. It would help surmount her oncoming problems.

The problems were to do with her parents. They'd split when Sarah was 8, Rosellen taking Sarah to live in an apartment on the Upper East Side.

Sarah Michelle Gellar