Sarah Michelle Prinze (born April 14, 1977), known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar, is an American film and television actress. She became widely known for her role as Buffy Summers on the WB/UPN television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for which she won six Teen Choice Awards and the Saturn Award for Best Genre TV Actress and received a Golden Globe Award nomination. She originated the role of Kendall Hart on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children, winning the 1995 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series. 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 Veronika Decides to Die (2009). As of September 2008, Gellar's films have grossed US$627.3 million. Gellar's most successful starring role is in The Grudge, which opened with US$39.1 million opening weekend and grossed over US$110 million in the U.S. Gellar has appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, FHM, Rolling Stone, and other magazines. She was featured in the annual Maxim "Hot 100" list in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2008 and in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women" of 2005. She was voted number 1 in the magazine's 1999 edition. In 1998, she was named one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People (in the World)". Gellar has appeared in "Got Milk?" ads as well as in the Stone Temple Pilots music video "Sour Girl" and Marcy Playground music video "Comin' Up From Behind". In 2007, she was ranked #54 on FHM Hot 100 List and was a celebrity spokesperson for Maybelline. Wearing a black lace brassiere, she was on the cover of the December 2007 issue of Maxim magazine and was named Maxim magazine's 2008 Woman of the Year. In 2008 she ranked in the top 5 of the Maxim "Hot 100" list. She was also featured in Google's Top 10 Women Searches of 2002 and 2003, coming in at #8, and featured in UK Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sex Symbols in 2007, ranked at #16. Roles like Buffy and Cruel Intentions made her a sex symbol across the globe. Gellar featured in FHM's German, Dutch, South African, Danish and Romanian editions 100 Sexiest Women lists every year from 1998 onwards. Topsocialite.com listed her as the 8th Sexiest woman of the 90s along with Alicia Silverstone, Gillian Anderson and Shannen Doherty. Other appearances and listings include: Entertainment Weekly's Top 100 TV Icons in 2007, Entertainment Weekly's Top 12 Entertainers of the Year in 1998 (ranked #3) and Glamour's 50 Best Dressed Women in the World 2004 and 2005 (ranked at #17 and #24). In 2007, Gellar was featured in Vaseline's "Skin Is Amazing" campaign, with other actors such as Hilary Duff, Amanda Bynes, and John Leguizamo. Gellar graced the cover of Gotham and featured as their main story in the March 2008 issue, in which she spoke about how passing 30 has evolved her style. She said "It sounds clichéd, but when women turn 30, they find themselves. You become more comfortable in your own skin. Last night on Letterman, I wore this skintight Herve Leger dress. Two years ago, three years ago? I would never have worn it." Gellar met her future husband Freddie Prinze, Jr., during filming of the 1997 teen horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer, but the two did not begin dating until 2000. They were engaged in April 2001 and married in Mexico on September 1, 2002 in a ceremony officiated by Adam Shankman, a film director and choreographer with whom Gellar had worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar's bridesmaid was her closest friend of many years, Lindsay Sloane. In 2007, Gellar legally changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze in honor of the couple's fifth year of marriage. In 2004, while filming The Grudge in Japan, Gellar visited the famous Japanese swordsmith Shoji Yoshihara (Kuniie III) and bought a katana from him as a birthday present for her husband. Gellar learned that she needed clearance from the Japanese government to remove the sword from the country and, after eventually succeeding, stated that it was "incredibly difficult" to do. Gellar and Prinze have a daughter, Charlotte Grace Prinze, born in September 2009.
