<Tr> <Th> Occupation </Th> <Td> Actress </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Years active </Th> <Td> 1990--present </Td> </Tr> <P> Michelle Christine Trachtenberg / ˈtræktənbɜːrɡ / TRAK - tən - bərg (born October 11, 1985) is an American actress . She may be best known for portraying Nona F. Mecklenberg in The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1994--96) and Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000--03), amongst numerous other television series and feature film roles . </P> <P> Trachtenberg was born in New York City, the youngest of two daughters of Lana, a bank manager, and Michael Trachtenberg, a fiber - optics engineer . Her father is German Jewish and her mother is Russian Jewish, and she is of the Jewish religion, with her grandparents living in Israel . She was raised with her older sister Irene in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where she attended junior high school at The Bay Academy for the Arts and Sciences . She later attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California . </P>

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