Born in Pennsylvania, Julie Benz's father is a Pittsburgh surgeon and her mother is a figure ice 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 in the 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 in the Black Cat episode in the Dario Argento/George A. Romero co-direction horror flick, Two Evil Eyes playing in one scene alongside Harvey Keitel. A year later, she got a role on a TV show called Hi Honey, I'm Home.

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 and in the Aaron Spelling TV pilot Crosstown Traffic.

In 1996, Julie 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 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 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.

Even after her role on Angel 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, to Supernatural, to playing the lead and supporting roles in various made-for-TV movies. Most recently, she landed another notable role on the TV-cable series Dexter playing "Rita", a troubled divorcée and lover of the title character played by Michael C. Hall.
She competed in the 1988 U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing with David Schilling, placing 13th. Her older sister and brother, Jennifer and Jeffrey, were the 1987 U.S. Junior Champions in ice dancing and competed internationally. Auditioned for a role in Eyes Wide Shut. She was called back to audition for the role again, but decided against it when she was going to have to do the scene topless. Was once ranked the number 12 ice skater in the United States. Julie has lost two roles to Sarah Michelle Gellar. The first was the role of Kendall Hart on All My Children. The second was the role of Buffy on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was originally cast to play the character "Ellie Sparks" in the un-aired pilot of the TV show Glory Days. Attended Franklin Regional Sr. High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania Was originally picked to play the part of "Matty Jensen" in the film West of Brooklyn but was replaced by Natalia Livingston. Appeared in both: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami. Her favorite vacation spot is Tuscany. Her favorite charities are Lupus LA and U.S. Campaign for Burma. Her favorite drink is Limoncello. She dyed her natural blonde hair to brunette for the film Punisher: War Zone. Has a dog called Bamboo.