Sarah Michelle Gellar rose to fame thanks to the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and though she kept appearing in various films and TV shows after that, she has stayed away from major roles – here’s why. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s career began when she was six years old, appearing in the television film An Invasion of Privacy and later in an uncredited role in the rom-com Over the Brooklyn Bridge. Her big break came when she joined the soap opera All My Children in 1993, where she played the long-lost daughter of Erica Kane (Susan Lucci).

However, the role that gave Gellar worldwide recognition was Buffy Summers in Joss Whedon’s supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character was the latest in a line of young women known as “slayers”, and even though she tried to live a normal life, she ended up battling vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness. Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB in 1997 and came to an end in 2003 after seven seasons, and led to a bunch of tie-in products such as novels and comic books, as well as the spinoff series, Angel.

Related: Who Was The Vampire Slayer Before Buffy?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer wasn’t the only project Gellar was involved in during those years: she also appeared in the horror films I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2, voiced a character in Small Soldiers, had a lead role in Cruel Intentions, Simply Irresistible, and Harvard Man. Perhaps the most notable project during the Buffy years is Raja Gosnell’s Scooby Doo, where she played Daphne. But what happened to Sarah Michelle Gellar after that?

Why Sarah Michelle Gellar Stopped Appearing In Major Movies

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar Arms Crossed Graveyard

Sarah Michelle Gellar’s career hasn’t really stopped, but she has taken it easier. When it comes to TV roles, she was an SNL host a couple of times, appeared in two episodes of Angel, one episode of Sex and the City, Grosse Pointe, and Those Who Can’t, and lent her voice to a couple of characters in the series The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, American Dad!, God, the Devil and Bob, and Star Wars Rebels. She had the main role in the short-lived crime drama series Ringer and the sitcom The Crazy Ones, as well as in the unaired pilot of Cruel Intentions. Her latest TV credit is an appearance as herself in The Big Bang Theory’s episode “The Stockholm Syndrome”.

As for film, she appeared in the American remake of The Grudge, reprised her role as Daphne in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, went back to horror in The Return, and spent some time in the realm of thrillers with Southland Tales and The Air I Breathe Now. She lent her voice to Ella in Happily N’Ever After, April O’Neil in TMNT, and Nicole in The Illusionauts, and starred in Possession and Veronika Decides to Die. She took a small hiatus from acting following the birth of her daughter in 2009, and had a second child in 2012, which explains why she has taken it easier with film and TV roles – after all, family always comes first – and she has also kept herself busy with charity work and her cooking and lifestyle brand, Foodstirs. What’s important, though, is that Sarah Michelle Gellar is still working, and her fans are surely up to date with all her projects, and will never forget her time as the great Buffy Summers.

Next: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Why Riley Was Buffy's Best Boyfriend