Julie Benz  is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (1997–2004), and as Rita Bennett on Dexter (2006–2010), for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress and the 2009 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Benz has also starred in the television series Roswell (1999–2000), Desperate Housewives (2010), No Ordinary Family (2010–2011), A Gifted Man (2011–2012), Defiance (2013–2015), Hawaii Five-0 (2015–2017), Training Day (2017) and Love, Victor (2021).

Her film credits include Jawbreaker (1999), The Brothers (2001), Rambo (2008), Saw V (2008), Punisher: War Zone (2008), and The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009).

Benz was born in Pittsburgh. Her mother, Joanne Marie (née Seemiller), was a figure skater, and her father, George Benz, Jr., is a surgeon in Pittsburgh. Benz is of German & Welsh descent. 

The family settled in nearby Murrysville, Pennsylvania, when Benz was two, and she started ice skating when she was three. She attended and graduated from Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville.

When Benz was 14, she suffered a stress fracture in her right leg and had to take time off from skating. The following year, at age 15, Benz says she was told by an acting coach that she would never succeed as an actress. "I remember the teacher telling me I should not even try acting. I still have the report card where she was like, 'You will never be an actor. Your voice is horrible.' That was the best thing that ever happened to me because I was like, 'I'll show you'," she later said.

By 1989, with her figure skating career over, Benz became involved in local theater and was cast in the play Street Law. Her first film role was a small speaking part in "The Black Cat" segment of the Dario Argento/George A. Romero horror film Two Evil Eyes (1990).[9] A year later, she was cast in the TV show Hi Honey, I'm Home! (1991) which was cancelled after two seasons.

After graduating from high school in 1990, Benz studied acting at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.