Birth Name : Julie M. Benz
Date of Birth : 1 May 1972, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Height : 5' 4" (1.63 m)
Occupation : Actress
Born in Pennsylvania, Julie Benz's father is a Pittsburgh surgeon and her mother is a figure ice skater. The family settled in nearby Murrysville, when Julie was two, and she started ice skating at age three. She competed in the 1988 U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing with her partner David Schilling, coming in 13th. Her older brother and sister, Jeffrey and Jennifer, were in the 1987 U.S. Junior Champions in ice dancing and competed internationally. When Julie was 14, she had a bad stress fracture and had to take time off.
By 1989, with her figure skating career over, Julie 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 in the Black Cat episode in the Dario Argento/George A. Romero co-direction horror flick, Two Evil Eyes (1990) playing in one scene alongside Harvey Keitel. A year later, she got a role on a TV show called "Hi Honey, I'm Home" (1991).
An adventurous supporting actress who specialized in deeply complex and often flawed characters, Julie Benz captured audiences' attention with roles in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (The WB, 1997-2003), "Angel" (The WB, 1999-2004) and "Dexter" (Showtime, 2006- ). A former competitive ice skater, she abandoned sports after an injury to pursue acting. Bit parts on television series led to her breakthrough role as the malevolent vampiress Darla on "Buffy" and "Angel." Benz's physical beauty was an occasional obstacle in finding projects of substance, but she eventually landed another standout character in Rita, the reluctant lover and spouse of Michael C. Hall's Dexter. These and other projects, which included stints in comedy, science fiction, horror and sudsy dramas, proved that Benz was one of the most versatile performers on the small screen.
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