Julie Benz

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Julie Benz
Julie Benz
Born	May 1, 1972 (1972-05-01) (age 36) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Spouse(s)	John Kassir (30 May 1998 - December 2007)

Julie 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.

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Filmography
4 Own appearances
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] 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. She later graduated from New York University.

[edit] 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 flick 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 cancelled after two seasons.

After graduating from high school, Julie entered New York University to study acting. After graduation, Julie 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 Aaron Spelling unaired TV 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 which include 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 Kristy in the TV movie Hearts Adrift and a lead role as Julie Falcon in Darkdrive.

In 1996, Julie 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 unaired pilot in which she did such a good job that her part was expanded to a few more episodes in playing the vampire Darla. With that, her career had finally taken off. She guest starred in more TV shows like The Big Easy and Fame L.A. whilst getting a small, but memorable, 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, TV Movie A Walton Easter and a small role in Inventing the Abbotts as a co-ed.

In 1998, she had a recurring role in the TV show Ask Harriet (though the show was cancelled and only 2 of her 5 appearances aired) then guest starred on Conrad Bloom and The King of Queens. She also starred in two movies, the popular dark comedy Jawbreaker as Marcie Fox and Dirt Merchant which premiered on September 19th 1999 on SightSound.com before landing a lead role in another TV show called Payne as Breeze O’Rourke whom is a proud virgin working at the Whispering Pines Inn and was similar to the Polly character from Fawlty Towers, the show was cancelled after one season (only 8 of the 9 episodes aired). She also had a recurring role on the show Roswell, starred in the TV movie Satan's School for Girls and had a lead role in the horror movie parody Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth as Barbara.

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 funny 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 and was in the featured cast for the mini-series Taken as Kate Keys. 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 of A Fate Totally Worse Than Death 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 Sarah in Rambo and then appeared in a promo campaign for PETA called Violence Link PETA PSA and a promo for the Burma: It Can't Wait Campaign. She is also going to be the lead role in the fifth film of the popular Saw franchise, Saw V playing a character called Brit. She has a lead role in the sequel The Punisher: War Zone as Angela Donatelli.

[edit] Personal life

Benz was previously married to actor John Kassir.^[3] The date of the marriage was 30 May 1998 and she filed for divorce in December 2007.^[4]

[edit] Awards

2006 Satellite Awards: Supporting Actress in a Series (Dexter)

[edit] Filmography

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

[edit] Own appearances

The View (TV series) (episode dated 23rd January 2008) as Herself
The Early Show (TV series) (episode dated 23rd January 2008) as Herself
CW 11 Morning News (TV series) (episode dated 23rd January 2008) as Herself
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (TV series) (episode dated 17th January 2008) as Herself
The Sauce (TV series) (episode dated 17th January 2008) as Herself
E! News Daily (TV series) (2007) (episode dated 10 January 2007) as Herself
The Making of 'Kill Your Darlings' (2006) as Herself
Halos & Horns: Recurring Villainy (2005) as Herself
The Sharon Osbourne Show (TV series) (episode dated 13 April 2004) (2004) as Herself
Darla: Deliver Us from Evil (2004) as Herself
Angel: Season 3 Overview (2004) as Herself
TRL (TV series) (episode dated 17 October 2003) (2003) as Herself
Angel: Season 2 Overview (2003) as Herself
The Saturday Show (TV series) (episode dated 10 May 2003) (2003) as Herself
Rank (TV series) (episode 25 Toughest Stars) (2002) as Herself
Inside Taken (2002) as Herself
The Big Breakfast (TV series) (episode dated 12 November 2001) (2001) as Herself
Rendez-View (TV series) (episode The Naked Truth) (2001) as Herself - Guest Host
Jawbreaker Movie Special (2001) as Herself
Happy Hour (TV series) (episode dated 17 April 1999) (1999) as Herself