Julie Benz

Born: May 1 1972
Where: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

The onetime competitive ice skater is best known on the big screen for her appearance as a missionary in Rambo.

Other significant roles have included Rita Bennett in the TV series Dexter and the bloodsucker Darla in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

The daughter of a surgeon, her family settled in Murrysville when she was two and began ice skating when she was three.

She competed in the 1988 US Championships in junior ice dancing with her partner David Schilling, coming in 13th.

However, a stress fracture when she was 14 ended her career and she turned to acting, snagging 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-directed horror flick Two Evil Eyes in 1990.

A year later, she got a role on the shortlived 1991 TV show Hi Honey, I'm Home and also continued her education at New York University.

After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles to further pursue her career and landed small roles in movies and TV shows, including a guest appearance on an episode of Married with Children in 1994.

She played Kristy in the TV movie Hearts Adrift and a lead role as Julie Falcon in Darkdrive.

In 1996, Benz auditioned for the role of Buffy in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer but lost out to Sarah Michelle Gellar.

However, she was offered a small role as a vampire girl in the unaired pilot in which she did such a good job that her part was expanded to a few more episodes in playing the vampire Darla.

A steady flow of work followed with guest appearances in TV shows like The Big Easy and Fame LA whilst getting a small, but memorable, role playing a receptionist in the movie As Good as It Gets.

In 1998, she had a recurring role in the TV show Ask Harriet and also starred in the movies Dirt Merchant and the popular dark comedy Jawbreaker.

She also had a recurring role on the show Roswell, starred in the TV movie Satan's School for Girls and had a lead role in the horror movie parody Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth as Barbara.

She reprised her role as Darla in 2000 for the Buffy spin-off series Angel and also landed a part in the romantic comedy film The Brothers.

Subsequent appearances included the role of Ursula for George of the Jungle 2 and she also provided the voice of Miranda Keyes in the video game Halo 2.

Benz played the lead role of Danielle in Bad Girls From Valley High and also worked on TV series including Supernatural, CSI: Miami, Law & Order and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Recent work includes the role of a kidnapped missionary in Sly Stallone's Rambo and Rita Bennett in Dexter.