‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘ star has found her new calling. Eliza Dushku, who began acting at just nine years old, has confirmed she quietly stepped away from Hollywood eight years ago.
In a December 2025 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dushku said she left the industry after undergoing psychedelic-assisted therapy in 2018 to address two traumatic on-set experiences.
Getty“I very quickly connected to the awareness that I was not living my highest purpose and that I could no longer live the life I was living,” Dushku said. “I didn’t know at the time what that would be, but it was wild how clear and what a moment of truth that was for me.”
The Actress Says She Won’t Return to the Camera
Dushku recently stepped into a different creative role as an executive producer on the 2024 Netflix documentary “In Waves and War,” which follows Navy SEALs undergoing psychedelic-assisted therapy. She emphasized that the project reflects her new path and does not signal any plan to return to acting.
“I will not be in front of a camera again unless it’s in some capacity that is in service of my new work and passion,” said Dushku. As per NBC San Diego, she earned a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May 2025.
She added that she feels no longing for her former life on set. “It was fulfilling. It was, and I did it for 25 years,” she said. “But I think that was part of my story, and now I get to do this other life, and it’s beautifully rich.”
Dushku Reflects on ‘Buffy,’ ‘Bring It On’ & Her Kids Seeing Her Past Work
Dushku said her children, Philip “Bourne,” 6, and Bodan “Bodie,” 4, recently got a glimpse of her early work when her husband, Peter Palandjian, showed them short clips from “Bring It On.”
Her kids “were perplexed and thoroughly confused,” she joked, though they loved watching her “bouncing around as a cheerleader.”
She shared that her nieces and nephews, now teens and young adults, have also watched her turn as Faith in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The character’s continued resonance still means a great deal to her.
“For them, obviously, Buffy was such a rite of passage. It has become such a salve for so many and a reminder of what it can be like to survive high school and adolescence,” she said. “I’m so grateful that I could play a part in something so much bigger than me.”
Although Dushku has retired from acting, her former co-star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, is returning as Buffy Summers for a new Hulu sequel series. Gellar emphasized in a September 2025 interview with Entertainment Tonight that “it’s not a reboot,” but rather “a continuation of a world.”
“It’s picking up 25 years later in a world of Buffy,” Gellar said, adding that she feels both excited and nervous as she hopes longtime fans embrace the new installment.
