Julie Benz - Unknown Photoshoot

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.

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 which she did such a good job that her part was expanded to a few more episodes in playing the vampire "Darla". With that, Julie Benz's career had finally taken off. She reprised her role as "Darla" in the Buffy spin-off series "Angel" (1999) for two years and has had several small roles in various film productions. She also had a small, but memorable, role playing a receptionist in the movie As Good as It Gets (1997).

Even after her role on "Angel" (1999) wrapped up, Julie continued to find work on television in playing many guest staring roles in numerous popular TV shows from "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000), to "Supernatural" (2005), to playing the lead and supporting roles in various made-for-TV movies. Most recently, she landed another notable role on the TV-cable series "Dexter" (2006) playing "Rita", a troubled divorcée and lover of the title character played by Michael C. Hall.