section_path: Early life and education
section_name: Early life and education
paragraph_text: Early life and education
  
  Michelle Christine Trachtenberg was born on October 11, 1985, in New York City, to Lana, a bank manager, and Michael Trachtenberg, a fiber-optics manager. Her parents were Jewish immigrants; her father was from Germany and her mother was from Russia. Her mother helped her learn some Russian for a role in 2013. In an interview in November 2013, Trachtenberg said that her father had died recently. Her grandparents reside in Israel. She had an older sister named Irene.
  
  Trachtenberg was raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where she attended junior high school at The Bay Academy for the Arts and Sciences. Her family later moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. She said in a later interview and on social media that she was bullied in school. She was a youth representative for the launch of an anti-drug campaign with President Bill Clinton.
  
  Michelle Christine Trachtenberg was born on October 11, 1985, in New York City, to Lana, a bank manager, and Michael Trachtenberg, a fiber-optics manager. Her parents were Jewish immigrants; her father was from Germany and her mother was from Russia. Her mother helped her learn some Russian for a role in 2013. In an interview in November 2013, Trachtenberg said that her father had died recently. Her grandparents reside in Israel. She had an older sister named Irene.
  
  Trachtenberg was raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where she attended junior high school at The Bay Academy for the Arts and Sciences. Her family later moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. She said in a later interview and on social media that she was bullied in school. She was a youth representative for the launch of an anti-drug campaign with President Bill Clinton.