Julie Benz

Julie M. Benz is an actress of American origin who gained fame for playing Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Born to Joanne Marie (figure skater) and George Benz (surgeon), she was raised in Murrysville. She was fond of ice skating, hence she started doing that when she was only three years old. Not just skating, she also participated in junior ice dancing championships and performed well there. Her inspiration had been her older brother, Jeffrey, and her sister, Jennifer, both of which were ice skaters and ice dancers, and won many competitions. But Julie suffered a setback at the age of 14, because of a stress fracture in her right leg due to which she had to abort skating for a while.

Julie did not have a good voice, and hence she was under estimated at each stage of her trial. Her teacher and coach even asked her to never try acting as her voice sounded horrible. She would never succeed as an actress. But people with strong will and courage do not give up easily. She did not say anything at that very moment, but somewhere in her heart she said to herself that she will show her coach and the entire world what she is capable of. After her skating career was over, she tried out as an actress in a few plays, but could not gain enough name and fame.

So, after her graduation, she went to study acting and furnish herself more at New York University. Then, she started playing small roles in series like Married..with Children, Crosstown Traffic, etc. and in unaired series like ‘Empire’, Step By Step, Barefoot Executive, etc. She did small roles and satisfied herself. Finally, she played a lead role in ‘Darkdrive’ as Julie Falcon. She gave auditions for the lead role in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but lost the role so she was given the tiny role of a vampire named Darla. But even this performance of hers was well appreciated by the people. In fact, this role proved to be a turning point in her career. After this, she acted in shows such as Big Easy, and even in a short spoof film, “Eating Las Vegas”, along with a video called “Veronica’s Video”.

Though, she was extremely talented, her luck had always been hard. Her role in a TV series was canceled after the release of its eight episodes. But still, she always gave her best and was casted for a lead role in a horror movie. Henceforth, her journey didn’t have any break. TV movies like The Long Shot, and the video game, Halo 2, adorned her. At the peak of her career, she got married to an actor, John Kassir, on 30th May, 1998, but later divorced him in 2007. Then she announced her engagement with a partner at B360 studios, Rich Orosco, and they got married on 5th May, 2012.