Julie Benz
Julie Benz : Role: Rita Bennet
Birthday : 1st May 1972
Birthplace : Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Recent Role : Herself on TMZ on TV
Birth Name : Julie M. Benz
Height : 5' 4" (1.63 m)
Gender : Female
Julie Benz is an American actress who was born to a renowned surgeon in Pittsburgh. Her mother was rumored to be an ice figure skater, but the reports were later claimed to be false. Coming from a family of doctors, Julie was supposed to join the same field but fate intended her to do something else. Julie started ice skating when she was only three years old and ranked 13th in the 1988 U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing, in which she participated along with her partner David Schilling. She has an elder brother and an elder sister named Jeffrey and Jennifer who were U.S. Junior Champions in ice dancing in 1987. Julie left skating at the age of 16 after she had a bad stress fracture. Julie attended the Franklin Regional Sr. High School and later went on to graduate from New York University. She married actor Jon Kassir in May 1998, but the two filed for divorce in December 2007. Her current boyfriend is Rich Orosco, who is the Vice President of Marketing for Warner Bros. Television.
Julie started her acting career in 1990. She has worked in many shows for theatre which include Romeo and Juliet, To Sleep, On The Town, Grease and The Proposal etc. In addition, she has acted in about 42 shows on television besides working in 16 movies. On television she has appeared in shows like Hi Honey, I’m Home, Ask Harriet, Payne, Roswell, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Law & Order etc. She has also acted in movies like Darkdrive, Dirt Merchant, The Brothers, Bad Girls from Valley High, Rambo, Saw V and Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day etc., with the last one currently under post production. She has also appeared as herself on shows like CW11 Morning News, Chelsea Lately, E! News Daily, The Sharon Osbourne Show, Total Request Live and Happy Hour etc. Currently she can be seen playing the role of Rita Bennet on Showtime’s crime series, Dexter. Julie has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and she has also won two other awards.
Role In Dexter
In Dexter, she plays the role of Rita Bennet. She is the love interest of Dexter and is slowly recovering from the trauma she faced while living with her mean and abusive ex-husband Paul. She has two children whom she raised single handedly until she met Dexter who gave fatherly love to the kids. During the third season of the series, Rita finally manages to convince Dexter to getting married with her after she learns about being pregnant with his child. Although she finds Dexter’s behavior odd at times, she is far from learning the truth about his dark life.
