Julie Benz

Infobox Actor
name = Julie Benz

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imagesize = 200px
caption = Julie Benz
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|mf=yes|1972|5|1
location = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
othername =
homepage =
academyawards =
spouse = John Kassir (May 30, 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".

Biography

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. [cite web|url=http://adam.freefm.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=1386319|title= Adam Carolla Show January 31st, 2008] 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. [cite web|url= http://www.smgfan.com/JulieBenz.htm|title= SMGFAN.com's Exclusive Interview with Julie Benz|accessdate= 2008-02-03|date= 2003-11-11|publisher= smgfan.com] 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.

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 pilot episode 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 as the ditzy Joplin Russell in the TV show "Ask Harriet" (though the show was cancelled and only 2 of her many 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 who 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 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", ' 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 ' 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", ', "Law & Order" and '. 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 "" as Angela Donatelli.

Personal life

Benz was previously married to actor John Kassir [cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/angel/interviews/benz2/index.shtml|title= Angel - Interviews - Julie Benz and John Kassir|publisher= BBC Online] from May 30, 1998 until she filed for divorce in December 2007. [cite web|url= http://adam.freefm.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=1386319|title= Adam Carolla Show January 31st, 2008]

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") - Nominated

Filmography

* "Dexter" (TV series) (2006-Present) as Rita Bennett
* "" (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
* "" (TV series) (episode "Time of Your Death") (2006) as Heidi Wolff
* "Kill Your Darlings" (2006) as Katherine
* "" (TV series) (episode "Deviant") (2006) as Hayley Gordon
* "Supernatural" (TV series) (episode "Faith") (2006) as Layla Rourke
* "" (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
* "" (TV series) (episode "A Weak Link") (2004) as Denise Johnson
* "Angel" (TV series) (1999) as Darla (recurring; 2000-2004)
* "" (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

Own appearances

* "" (2008) as Herself
* "Scream Awards 2008" (2008) as Herself
* "The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards" (2008) as Herself
* "KTLA" (TV series) (episode date 18th September 2008) as Herself
* "Chelsea Lately" (TV series) (episode dated 5th September 2008) as Herself
* "The Soup" (TV series) (2008) (episode #5.31) as Herself
* "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

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0004748|name=Julie Benz
*amg name|2:5529
*tvtome person|34
* [http://seat42f.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1593&Itemid=9 Julie Benz Interview At Seat42f]
* [http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=23813 The Actor's Compendium] - Julie Benz's Actor Compendium Page
*MySpace|juliebenz

Persondata
NAME=Benz, Julie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor
DATE OF BIRTH=May 1, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=