Kristen Noel "Kristy" Swanson (born December 19, 1969) is an American actress best known as the original Buffy Summers in Joss Whedon's 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Career

Swanson started in TV advertising roles, and went on to make several one-off appearances in TV series such as Cagney and Lacey and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1986, she debuted on the big screen in two John Hughes films: Pretty In Pink, in a non-speaking role, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off as a character who announces a convoluted excuse for Ferris' absence in class. Her first starring role was later in 1986, in Wes Craven's Deadly Friendas Samantha the girl from next door. The next year she played Cathy in the adaptation of V. C. Andrews' best-seller Flowers in the Attic.