Biography - by Trista Holmes
On January 8, 1977, a quintuple threat was born to Ed and Diane Benson in the town Birmingham, Alabama.
When Amber Benson was three years old, her mother took her to see The Nutcracker Suite Ballet. Amber wanted to be on the stage so badly, that her mother had to physically keep her in her seat. Diane Benson explained to her young daughter that in order to be on the stage you needed to know how to dance. So, at three years old, Amber was enrolled in dance lessons. At the age of five, after being enrolled in the Birmingham Alabama Ballet Company, Amber had the chance to dance in The Nutcracker two years straight; the first year as a toy soldier, and the next as a marshmallow. Finally, after telling her mother that she didn't enjoy the dancing as much as having people clapping for her, Amber segued into the local community theater where she was able to closer study, not only acting, but singing and dancing as well.
After leaving Birmingham, the Bensons relocated to Orlando, Florida, in order to pursue an acting career. Amber landed one of the two main anchor roles for a television series called Kids' News. The series, however, was unsold. While residing in Orlando, Amber attended Dr. Phillips High School with now-known stars such as Joey Fatone from the pop boy band N*Sync. Upon the family relocating once more to California, she landed her first feature film role at the age of 14 in Stephen Soderbergh's King of the Hill, in which she gave one of the most emotion-provoking performances of her career as Ella McShane, an epileptic teen in depression-era St. Louis. As she was filming in St. Louis, Amber received a call that stated she needed to fly directly to Canada to begin working on The Crush, alongside Alicia Silverstone.
Fast forwarding just a tad bit, the Benson family soon found themselves in Los Angeles, California where Amber continued to gain role after role, one of those being her most well-known role as Tara Maclay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Week after week viewers welcomed Benson into their home as a regular guest star on the cult hit, and most fell in love with Willow's new love interest...a shy, stuttering Wiccan with a wonderful heart and sense of understanding. Tara was removed from the Buffy-verse by a stray bullet from Warren Meers' gun. Even though she wasn't in the show any longer, Amber gained a huge fan following from her performance as Tara, making other ventures that she decided to try her hand at pretty successful, and Buffy fans couldn't have been more pleased when she stepped into the world of prose for the first time, co-authoring a few Willow/Tara comics with author Christopher Golden for Dark Horse Comics.
Remember the phrase quintuple threat? It's no secret that Amber Benson had already proven herself as a wonderful actress and singer while in the role of Tara, but she decided to try her own hand behind the camera, stepping into the role of director and producer for two films that she wrote screenplays for, Chance, and Lovers, Liars, and Lunatics(previously titled The Dirty Script). She also co-wrote a screenplay for the film The Theory of Leisure Class with Gabriel Bologna in 1997 and in 2003 worked with James Kerwin to produce her play Albert Hall in Hollywood.
As far as her writing goes, she didn't stop at screenplays or comic books. She went on to co-author a supernatural series called The Ghosts of Albion with Christopher Golden. She also stepped out on her own, writing the Calliope Reaper-Jones series as well as a children's book entitled Among the Ghosts. Not to mention contributions to compilation pieces such as Shadowplay and Tales of the Slayers. On the radar so far, as far as her writing goes, Amber recently released the 5th and final book of her Calliope Reaper-Jones series.
So there you have the quintuple threat of Amber Benson. Actress, writer, director, producer, and singer. Move over Oprah! Amber's gonna take the world by storm!
When Amber Benson was three years old, her mother took her to see The Nutcracker Suite Ballet. Amber wanted to be on the stage so badly, that her mother had to physically keep her in her seat. Diane Benson explained to her young daughter that in order to be on the stage you needed to know how to dance. So, at three years old, Amber was enrolled in dance lessons. At the age of five, after being enrolled in the Birmingham Alabama Ballet Company, Amber had the chance to dance in The Nutcracker two years straight; the first year as a toy soldier, and the next as a marshmallow. Finally, after telling her mother that she didn't enjoy the dancing as much as having people clapping for her, Amber segued into the local community theater where she was able to closer study, not only acting, but singing and dancing as well.
After leaving Birmingham, the Bensons relocated to Orlando, Florida, in order to pursue an acting career. Amber landed one of the two main anchor roles for a television series called Kids' News. The series, however, was unsold. While residing in Orlando, Amber attended Dr. Phillips High School with now-known stars such as Joey Fatone from the pop boy band N*Sync. Upon the family relocating once more to California, she landed her first feature film role at the age of 14 in Stephen Soderbergh's King of the Hill, in which she gave one of the most emotion-provoking performances of her career as Ella McShane, an epileptic teen in depression-era St. Louis. As she was filming in St. Louis, Amber received a call that stated she needed to fly directly to Canada to begin working on The Crush, alongside Alicia Silverstone.
Fast forwarding just a tad bit, the Benson family soon found themselves in Los Angeles, California where Amber continued to gain role after role, one of those being her most well-known role as Tara Maclay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Week after week viewers welcomed Benson into their home as a regular guest star on the cult hit, and most fell in love with Willow's new love interest...a shy, stuttering Wiccan with a wonderful heart and sense of understanding. Tara was removed from the Buffy-verse by a stray bullet from Warren Meers' gun. Even though she wasn't in the show any longer, Amber gained a huge fan following from her performance as Tara, making other ventures that she decided to try her hand at pretty successful, and Buffy fans couldn't have been more pleased when she stepped into the world of prose for the first time, co-authoring a few Willow/Tara comics with author Christopher Golden for Dark Horse Comics.
Remember the phrase quintuple threat? It's no secret that Amber Benson had already proven herself as a wonderful actress and singer while in the role of Tara, but she decided to try her own hand behind the camera, stepping into the role of director and producer for two films that she wrote screenplays for, Chance, and Lovers, Liars, and Lunatics(previously titled The Dirty Script). She also co-wrote a screenplay for the film The Theory of Leisure Class with Gabriel Bologna in 1997 and in 2003 worked with James Kerwin to produce her play Albert Hall in Hollywood.
As far as her writing goes, she didn't stop at screenplays or comic books. She went on to co-author a supernatural series called The Ghosts of Albion with Christopher Golden. She also stepped out on her own, writing the Calliope Reaper-Jones series as well as a children's book entitled Among the Ghosts. Not to mention contributions to compilation pieces such as Shadowplay and Tales of the Slayers. On the radar so far, as far as her writing goes, Amber recently released the 5th and final book of her Calliope Reaper-Jones series.
So there you have the quintuple threat of Amber Benson. Actress, writer, director, producer, and singer. Move over Oprah! Amber's gonna take the world by storm!