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Dexter Actress Julie Benz to Star in Lifetime Movie Network's Held ...

WebWire - Found Apr. 16, 2009
Dexter Actress Julie Benz to Star in Lifetime Movie Network's Held Hostage WEBWIRE Thursday, April 16, 2009 Contact Information Karen Ammond

Posted on April 16, 2009, 4:33 am

Happy Birthday, Julie Benz

NewsOK.com - Found May. 2, 2009
She was 18.    Best wishes to Julie and everybody who shares this special day with her. ?Penny TV Pictured at right: Julie Benz poses for...

Posted on May 2, 2009, 7:23 am

Dexter. Superman. Gossip Girl. Classic TV commercials. Big news on ...

Examiner.com - Found Jul. 3, 2009
Lots of blood. The supporting cast?Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, David Zayas and James Remar?is one of the best on TV today.

Posted on July 3, 2009, 7:46 am

Lucifer Will Show His Face After All

About - Found Jul. 2, 2009
... showed real promise there ? on the one hand, you hated the guy because of what he did to Rita (Julie Benz), but it was fascinating to watch...

Posted on July 2, 2009, 11:09 am

PETA Offers $2,500 Reward for Help in Nabbing Cumberland County Dog ...

PETA - Found Jun. 24, 2009
... more information and to view PETA's anti-violence public service announcement -- which features Saw V star Julie Benz -- please visit PETA.org.

Posted on June 24, 2009, 4:54 am

The Punisher: War Zone DVD

MaleFirst Mens Magazine - Found Jun. 23, 2009
Also starring Colin Salmon (AvP, The World is Not Enough) and Julie Benz (Rambo, Dexter), Punisher: War Zone sees the anti-hero waging his one...

Posted on June 23, 2009, 10:43 am

New Dexter Season 4 Promo Poster

MovieWeb - Found Jun. 23, 2009
Dexterstars Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter and David Zayas. The fourth season will premiere on September 27 on Showtime.

Posted on June 23, 2009, 1:25 pm

Comic-Con daily buzz update for Saturday, June 20, 2009

Examiner.com - Found Jun. 20, 2009
Actress Julie Benz, who plays Dexter's girlfriend Rita, has confirmed that she will be returning to participate Comic-Con 2009. Breaking Comic...

Posted on June 20, 2009, 5:22 am

'Supernatural' Comic-Con news and thoughts on Season 1 of the show

Chicago Tribune - Found Jun. 18, 2009
Jensen Ackles and Julie Benz gave wonderfully understated performances, and I challenge you to watch their final scene together and not tear up.

Posted on June 18, 2009, 5:42 am

Top 10 Sexiest Vampires

Associated Content - Found Jun. 18, 2009
Julie Benz as Darla in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' - This blonde blood queen was born in a bordello;

Posted on June 18, 2009, 10:42 am

Julie Benz Biography

Julie Benz
extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

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.

Contents

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

References

External links