Julie Benz
Julie Benz, October 2005
Born	Julie M. Benz May 1, 1972 (1972-05-01) (age 37) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	John Kassir (1998–present) (divorce pending)

Julie M. Benz (born May 1, 1972) is an American actress. For her role as Rita Bennett on Dexter, Benz won the 2006 Satellite Award for Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. She is also well known for her role of Darla on Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Early life

Benz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father is a Pittsburgh surgeon and, contrary to rumor, her mother was never an ice figure skater.¹ The family settled in nearby Murrysville when Benz was two, and she started ice skating when she was three. She competed in the 1988 U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing with her partner David Schilling, coming in 13th.² Her older brother and sister, Jeffrey and Jennifer, were the 1987 U.S. Junior Champions in ice dancing and competed internationally. When Benz was 14, she had a bad stress fracture and had to take time off. She grew up in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, graduating from Franklin Regional High School.³ She later graduated from New York University.

Career

By 1989, with her figure skating career being over, Benz turned to acting and got involved in the local theater, where she got a role in the play Street Law. Her first movie role was a small, credited, speaking part in "The Black Cat" segment of the Dario Argento/George A. Romero co-directed horror movie Two Evil Eyes (1990). A year later, she got a role on a TV show called Hi Honey, I'm Home (1991). The show was canceled after two seasons.

After graduating from high school, Benz entered New York University to study acting. After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles to further pursue her career and landed some small roles in movies and TV shows, including a guest appearance on an episode of Married with Children in 1994 and a role in the (unaired) Aaron Spelling television pilot Cross Town Traffic. She also starred as Christie Lambert in another unaired TV pilot called Empire in 1995. She went on to guest star in many TV shows including Hang Time, High Tide, Step by Step and Boy Meets World. She also had a small role in the TV movie The Barefoot Executive. She had an uncredited role in Black Sheep and guest appearances in the shows Diagnosis Murder, Sliders and The Single Guy. She played Christy in the TV movie Hearts Adrift and a lead role as Julie Falcon in Darkdrive.

In 1996, Benz auditioned for the role of Buffy in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), but lost out to Sarah Michelle Gellar. However, she was offered a small role as a vampire girl in the pilot episode. She did such a good job that her part was expanded to a few more episodes in playing the vampire Darla. The role helped launch her career. She guest starred in more TV shows like The Big Easy and Fame L.A. whilst getting a small role playing a receptionist in the movie As Good as It Gets (1997). She went on to star in the short spoof film Eating Las Vegas, the unaired TV pilot Veronica's Video, had a small uncredited role in the TV movie A Walton Easter and a small role in Inventing the Abbotts.

In 1998, she had a recurring role as the ditzy Joplin Russell in the TV show Ask Harriet (though the show was canceled and only 2 of her appearances aired) then guest starred on Conrad Bloom and The King of Queens. She also starred in two movies, the dark comedy Jawbreaker and Dirt Merchant, before landing a lead role in another TV show called Payne. She also had a recurring role as undercover FBI Special Unit agent Kathleen Topolsky on Roswell during its 1st season, starred in the TV movie Satan's School for Girls, the unaired TV pilot Good Guys/Bad Guys and had a lead role in the horror movie parody Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth.

She reprised her role as Darla in 2000 for the Buffy spin-off series Angel appearing in every season of the show for at least one episode. She had a role in the romantic comedy film The Brothers in which she was the only white person featured in the principal cast and was a guest host for the TV show Rendez-View. She was cast as Ellie Sparks in Glory Days and appeared in the unaired pilot; however she left the show. She guest starred on She Spies. She was then in the featured cast for the mini-series Taken. She did various voices for the video game Hot Shots Golf Fore!, appeared in the short film The Midget Stays in the Picture and took over the role of Ursula for George of the Jungle 2.

Julie went on to guest star in Peacemakers, Coupling, Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Oliver Beene. She landed the lead role of Annie Garrett in the Hallmark TV movie The Long Shot. Benz also provided the voice of Miranda Keyes in the video game Halo 2, though she did not return to the role in the sequel Halo 3 as Bungie wanted to try a new direction with the Miranda Keyes voice by giving the character an accent, replaced by Justis Bolding. She played the lead role of Danielle in Bad Girls From Valley High (a film shot in 2000 under the title A Fate Totally Worse Than Death) which was released on DVD in 2005. She had a small role in the critically acclaimed TV movie Lackawanna Blues. In the Scifi Original Locusts: The 8th Plague she played the lead female role Vicky and she also appeared in the straight-to-DVD movie 8mm 2 as Lynn. The film was originally called The Velvet Side of Hell and was not supposed to be a sequel to 8MM.

Julie then guest starred on popular shows like Supernatural, CSI: Miami, Law & Order and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She had a supporting role in a Swedish independent movie called Kill Your Darlings, a lead role in the Lifetime movie Circle of Friends and joined the main cast of TV show Dexter as Rita Bennett. She plays the lead female in Rambo. Benz played a lead role in the fifth film of the popular Saw franchise, Saw V, as Brit, a real-estate developer who is one of five victims of Jigsaw's games. She had a supporting role in the second remake The Punisher: War Zone as Angela whom struggles to come to terms with her husband's death at the hands of the Punisher. She plays the title role in the short film Kidnapping Caitlynn, written by her close friend Jenny Mollen, premiered at the Vail Film Festival 2009 and was released online April 6 2009⁴. She will be the lead female character Eunice in The Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day which will be released in 2009. She's also currently in production for a new Hallmark Channel movie called UnCorked⁵ as Johnetta 'Johnny' Prentis⁶ due to be aired in 2009/2010. She's filming a Lifetime movie called Held Hostage based on Michelle Renee's true story⁷ and its set to air in July⁸. Also she's been cast in another indie film called Bedrooms.⁹

Personal life

Benz was married to actor and voice actor John Kassir.¹⁰ They were wed on May 30, 1998. She filed for divorce in December 2007.¹¹

Awards

• 2006 Satellite Awards: Supporting Actress in a Series (Dexter) - Won
• 2008 Eyegore Awards - Won
• 2008 Scream Awards: Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Dexter) - won

Filmography

• Two Evil Eyes (1990) (segment: "The Black Cat") as Betty
• Hi Honey, I'm Home (TV series) (1991–1992) as Babs Nielson
• Married... with Children (TV series) (episode "Field of Screams") (1994) as Sascha
• Cross Town Traffic (1995) (TV) as ? (unaired TV series pilot)
• Empire (1995) as Christine Lambert
• Hang Time (TV series) (episode "Earl Makes the Grade") (1995) as Linda Cantrell
• The Barefoot Executive (1995) (TV) as Sexy Woman
• High Tide (TV series) (episode "Sea No Evil") (1995) as Joanna Craig
• Step by Step (TV series) (episode "The Wall") (1995) as Tawny
• Boy Meets World (TV series) (episode "City Slackers") (1996) as Bianca
• Black Sheep (1996) as Woman (uncredited)
• Hearts Adrift (1996) (TV) as Christy
• Diagnosis Murder (TV series) (episode "Murder on Thin Ice") (1996) as Julie Miller
• Sliders (TV series) (episode "The Electric Twister Acid Test") (1996) as Jenny Michener
• The Single Guy (TV series) (episode "Love Train") (1996) as Cranberries Girl
• Darkdrive (1996) as Julie Falcon
• Veronica's Video (1997) (TV) as Heidi (unaired TV series pilot)
• Eating Las Vegas (1997) as Liz Shoe
• A Walton Easter (1997) as Jeannie (uncredited)
• Inventing the Abbotts (1997) as Co-ed
• The Big Easy (TV series) (episode "BeGirled") (1997)
• Fame L.A. (TV series) (episode "The Beat Goes On") (1997) as Vanessa
• As Good as It Gets (1997) as Receptionist
• Ask Harriet (TV series) (1998) as Joplin Russell (recurring; 1998)
• Conrad Bloom (TV series) (episode "The Rebound Guy") (1998) as Julie
• Jawbreaker (1999) as Marcie Fox
• Dirt Merchant (1999) as Angie
• Payne (TV series) (1999) as Breeze O'Rourke
• The King of Queens (TV series) (episode "Train Wreck") (1999) as Julie Patterson
• Satan's School for Girls (2000) as Alison Kingsley
• Roswell (TV series) (1999) as Kathleen Topolsky (recurring; 1999–2000)
• Good Guys/Bad Guys (2000) (TV) as ? (unaired NBC TV series pilot)
• Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth (2000) as Barbara
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) (1997) as Darla (recurring; 1997–2000)
• Bad Girls From Valley High (aka "A Fate Totally Worse Than Death") (2000) as Danielle
• The Brothers (2001) as Jesse Caldwell
• Glory Days (TV series) (episode Unaired Pilot) (2002) as Ellie Sparks
• Taken (2002) (TV series) as Kate Keyes
• She Spies (TV series) (episode "Spies vs. Spy") (2002) as Elaine
• Hot Shots Golf Fore! (VG) (2003) as Various Voices (voice)
• George of the Jungle 2 (2003) as Ursula
• The Midget Stays in the Picture (2003) as A-List Actress
• Peacemakers (TV series) (episode The Witness) (2003) as Miranda Blanchard
• Coupling (TV series) (episode "Decatur Guy") (2003) as Amanda
• The Long Shot: Believe in Courage (2004) as Annie Garrett
• Angel (TV series) (1999) as Darla (recurring; 2000–2004)
• Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service (TV series) (episode "A Weak Link") (2004) as Denise Johnson
• Oliver Beene (TV series) (episode "Idol Chatter") (2004) as Cigarette Girl
• Halo 2 (VG) (2004) as Miranda Keyes
• Lackawanna Blues (2005) as Laura
• 8mm 2 (2005) as Lynn
• Locusts: The 8th Plague (2005) as Vicky
• Supernatural (TV series) (episode "Faith") (2006) as Layla Rourke
• CSI: Miami (TV series) (episode "Deviant") (2006) as Hayley Gordon
• Kill Your Darlings (2006) as Katherine
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV series) (episode "Time of Your Death") (2006) as Heidi Wolff
• Circle of Friends (2006) as Maggie
• Law & Order (TV series) (episode "Church") (2007) as Dawn Sterling
• Rambo (2008) as Sarah
• Saw V (2008) as Brit
• Punisher: War Zone (2008) as Angela
• Kidnapping Caitlynn (2009) as Caitlynn
• Dexter (TV series) (2006–Present) as Rita Bennett
• Held Hostage (2009) as Michelle
• UnCorked (2009) as Johnetta 'Johnny' Prentis
• Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) as Eunice Bloom

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Julie Benz

• Julie Benz at the Internet Movie Database
• Julie Benz at Allmovie
• Julie Benz at TV.com
• Julie Benz Interview At Seat42f
• The Actor's Compendium - Julie Benz's Actor Compendium Page
• [1] - JulieBenz.net
• Julie Benz at MySpace