Sarah Michelle Gellar Net Worth, Early Life, Education, Career, Awards, Charity, Entrepreneurship and Personal Life

American actress/producer/entrepreneur, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth increased as she won 1995 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series.

Synopsis

Sarah Michelle Gellar is best known for her appearance in 1992 miniseries Swans Crossing and WB series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). She portrayed the role of Buffy Summers in the series. Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth grew as she won 5 Teen Choice Awards, a Saturn Award and a Golden Globe nomination for the series.  In addition, she fetched great deal of attention from the viewers through her role in movies I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream 2 (1997).

She also gained wide fame through her role as Daphne Blake in her biggest commercial success Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monster Unleashed. Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth rose with the horror movie The Grudge which grossed more than $180 million worldwide. Other than these, Gellar co-founded Foodstirs in 2015. The e-commerce startup sells baking kits for children.

Early Life and Education

Sarah Michelle Gellar was born on April 14, 1977 in New York City, New York in the United States. She was born as the only child of Rosellen and Arthur Gellar. Her mother worked as a nursey school teacher while her father was a garment worker. Even though her parents were Jewish, they had a Christmas tree during the festival.

When Gellar was 7 years old, her parents divorced. So, she grew up with her mother alone and lost contact with her father. There was no information of her estranged father until his death in 2001. Gellar grew up as a competitive figure skater. She finished third at a New York State regional competition. In addition to being a working child, she was also a black belt at Tae Kwon Do. As a result, she finished fourth in competition at Madison Square Garden.

The talented and active Gellar got into Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in a partial scholarship. It was because her mother could not afford to pay full tuition fee. Therefore, other students bullied her constantly for not being equally rich as them.

Gellar would miss a lot of her classes because she worked at several acting projects. She later attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. However, she dropped out of the school soon after her teachers threatened to fail her due to her frequent absence. During that time, she was working through a number of auditions in addition to getting good grades.

Soon, she joined Professional Children’s School from where she graduated in 1994 with 4.0 GPA. Sideways, she worked on All My Children in her senior year.

Early Career Highlights

An agent in a restaurant in Upper Manhattan spotted Gellar when was 4 years old. A couple of weeks later, she auditioned for her part in An Invasion of Privacy. She managed to impress the judges in the audition and got the role in the television film. Later, she appeared in controversial commercial for Burger King. She also worked for several television commercials.

Soon, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth rose as she appeared in minor roles in films Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984), High Stakes (1989) and Funny Farm (1988). Further, she guest starred in series Crossbow and Spenser: For Hire. She was cast as Jacqueline Bouvier in Emmy Award winning miniseries A Woman Named Jackie.

However, she netted wide recognition only after playing lead role in teen serial Swans Crossing (1992). The following year, she made soap opera debut with All My Children playing long-lost daughter Kendall Hart.

Later Career Highlights

She moved to Los Angeles and read script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It premiered in 1007 and won popular acclaim. Consequently, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth rose as she earned fame as one of the 100 greatest female characters in the US television. Another remarkable appearance she made was in Scream 2 as Casy Cooper, which earned $172 million worldwide.

Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth rose as she played Kathryn Merteuil in commercial success Cruel Intentions (1999) which grossed $75 million worldwide. For the movie, she and her co-star Selma Blair got Best Kiss Award at 2000 MTV Movie Awards.

Further, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth hiked as she appeared as Daphne Blake in action-comedy Scooby-Doo. The movie became commercial success grossing over $275 million. In 2004 released movie The Grudge, Gellar played Karen Davis. The film got mixed review and grossed US $ 187 million worldwide.

Gellar has also appeared in The Grudge 2 (2006) and psychological thriller The Return. Her movie TMNT was a commercial success that grossed $95 million worldwide.

In 2011, she returned as guest star in soap opera All My Children and co-stared in CBS series The Crazy Ones in 2013. The series generated 15.52 million viewers which made the series as highest rated that fall.

Apart from these roles, she has voiced in several movies, appeared in a number of dramas, soap operas, YouTube video and hosted shows. Some of her other movies are Possession and The Devil Wears Prada which did not generate huge success.

Awards and Nominations

Swans Crossing won her two Young Artist Award nominations in different categories. They are Best Young Actress in New Television Series and Best Young Actress in an Off-Primetime Series. She received Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series through the soap opera All My Children.

She won 5 Teen Choice Awards, a Saturn Award and a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress – Television Series Drama for the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In addition, she won MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance for the same movie.

For Scooby – Doo, she won Teen Choice Award as Choice Movie Actress – Comedy. Similarly, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth increased as she won MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Frightened Performance in The Grudge.

In addition, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth accelerated as she won People’s Choice Award. She won the Favorite Actress in New Television Series for series The Crazy Ones.

Apart from her awards she gathered from her acting career, Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth increased as she received award for her philanthropic action. She is the recipient of Tom Mankiewicz Leadership Award at Los Angeles Zoo. The award signifies their excellence in establishing meaningful programs and contribution to nature and environment.

Charity and Philanthropy

In addition to being a remarkable face in small and big screen, Gellar is an advocate for various charities. She is involved with Project Angel Food, Habitat for Humanity and CARE. She even travelled to Dominican Republic to support Habitat for Humanity’s building home project in 1999.

Gellar worked with Project Angel Food delivering healthy meals to AIDS infected people. Similarly, she fulfilled sick children’s wish of meeting her through Make-A-Wish Foundation. She even nude posed for photoshoot on eBay to fundraise for Coalition of Skin Diseases. Gellar was also involved in fundraising for Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA during 2014-15.

 Entrepreneurship and Other Works

Gellar co-founded an e-commerce startup, Foodstirs in 2015. It is a food crafting brand which makes and sells organic baking kits for children. Furthermore, she released a cook book Stirring up Fun with Food in 2017. She and Gia Russo had co-authored the book that features food crafting ideas.

Personal Life and Relationship

Sarah Michelle Gellar married Freddie Prinze, Jr. in September 1, 2002 after a year of their engagement. They first met on the set of horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The couple have worked together in several projects like Scooby – Doo and its sequel. Gellar changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze in 2007 officially.

Prinze and Gellar have two children: Charlotte, born in 2009 and Rocky, born in 2012. The family currently resides in Los Angeles.

Salary and Net Worth

The astounding actress and entrepreneur has worked hard enough to amass huge net worth. Sarah Michelle Gellar net worth increased to $15 million due to her remarkable performance in the industry.