Sarah Michelle Prinze, (born April 14, 1977) better known by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar, is an American film and television actress. She became widely known with her role as the character Buffy Summers in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for which she won a total of six Teen Choice Awards and the Saturn Award for Best Genre TV Actress and received a Golden Globe Award nomination. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for her work in All My Children as character Kendall Hart.

Her film work includes starring roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999); Scooby-Doo; (2002) the American remake of Japanese horror film The Grudge (2004) and The Return (2006). Gellar also played an ex-porn star in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales (2007) and was part of an ensemble cast in The Air I Breathe (2008). Gellar also stars in the films Possession and Veronika Decides to Die (2009).

Gellar was born in New York City, the only child of Rosellen (née Greenfield), a nursery school teacher, and Arthur Gellar, a garment worker. Both of her parents were Jewish, though Gellar's family had a Christmas tree during the holidays while she was growing up. In 1984, her parents divorced and she was brought up by her mother on the Upper East Side. She was estranged from her father from this time until his death from liver cancer on October 9, 2001.