Julie Benz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA on May 1, 1972. Julie's father is a Pittsburgh surgeon and her mother is a figure 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 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 the Black Cat segment of 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).
After graduating from high school, Julie entered New York University to study acting there. 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 Married... with Children (1987) and in the Aaron Spelling TV pilot Crosstown Traffic (1995).
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. 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. Benz played a leading role in the TV series No Ordinary Family (2010) playing Stephanie Powell along with actors Michael Chiklis, Kay Panabaker, Jimmy Bennett, Autumn Reeser, Romany Malco, and Stephen Collins.
In 2013, she had the starring role in the sci-fi / fantasy breakout hit show Defiance (2013).
as Ms. Devaney
as Celeste Beard
as Cassie Lowe
as Shelby(4 eps)
as Sadie Becker(4 eps)
as Pamela Dupree
as Carole Wilkes(7 eps)
as Kitty Dennison
as Kitty(1 ep)
as I Am Rideshare (voice)(1 ep)
as Skye(2 eps)
as Amanda
as Holly Butler(7 eps)
as Carline
as Jackie
as Meredith Rossman
as Wife
as Self(1 ep)
as Zoey
as Kristen
as Stevie Parker
as Amanda Rosewater(38 eps)
as Elise Laird
as Christina Holt(16 eps)
as Frankie
as Stephanie Powell(20 eps)
as Abby Dunn(12 eps)
as Anna
as Johnny Prentiss
as Michelle Estey
as Self - Guest(1 ep)
as Self
as Elyse(1 ep)
as Caitlynn
as Angela Donatelli
as Brit
as Sarah
as Maggie
as Rita Bennett(49 eps)
as Katherine
as Lynn
as Vicky
as Layla Rourke(1 ep)
as Danielle
as Laura
as Self(1 ep)
as Robin Gallagher(5 eps)
as Annie Garrett
as Amanda(1 ep)
as Denise Johnson(1 ep)
as Ursula
as Miranda Blanchard(1 ep)
as Cigarette Girl(1 ep)
as Kate Keys(2 eps)
as Hayley Gordon(1 ep)
as Elaine(1 ep)
as Jesse Caldwell
as Heidi Wolff(1 ep)
as Alison Kingsley
as Kathleen Topolsky(7 eps)
as Darla(20 eps)
as Angie
as Breeze O'Rourke(9 eps)
as Marcie Fox
as Julie Patterson(1 ep)
as Julie(1 ep)
as Joplin Russell(7 eps)
as Receptionist
as Julie Falcon
as Vanessa(1 ep)
as Co-ed
as Jeannie
as Darla(5 eps)
as Roxanne(1 ep)
as Christy
as Dancing Blonde Woman
as Sexy Woman
as Cranberries Girl(1 ep)
as Linda Cantrell(1 ep)
as Jenny Michener(1 ep)
as Joanna Craig(1 ep)
as Julie Miller(1 ep)
as Bianca(1 ep)
as Tawny(1 ep)
as Babs Nielsen(13 eps)
as Dawn Sterling(1 ep)
as Betty
as Sascha(1 ep)
