Julie Benz

Julie Benz plays Rita Bennett in Dexter, bringing warmth and understandable caution to Dexter Morgan's attempt at an ordinary relationship. Rita has reasons to be careful, and Benz gives that care a presence of its own. She isn't merely a convenient audience for whatever explanation Dexter offers.

Her earlier television work includes Darla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, a very different use of her screen presence. She also plays Amanda Rosewater in the science-fiction series Defiance, taking on the practical pressures of a frontier community.

Rita is especially useful to Dexter because the relationship requires things he cannot supply through forensic skill or a carefully prepared plan. He has to listen, turn up and respond to another person's needs. Benz keeps those scenes grounded in the ordinary life the series needs around its extraordinary central premise.