Amber Benson

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**Amber Nicole Benson** (born January 8, 1977) is an American actress, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*, and has also directed, produced and starred in her own films *Chance* (2002) and *Lovers, Liars & Lunatics* (2006). She also co-directed the film *Drones* with fellow *Buffy* cast member Adam Busch. Amber Benson also starred as a waitress in the horror movie “The Killing Jar.”

## Early life

Benson was born January 8, 1977, in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Diane and Edward Benson, a psychiatrist. She has a younger sister, Danielle, who is an artist. Her father is Jewish and her mother was raised Southern Baptist; Benson grew up attending a Reform synagogue in Alabama.

As a child, Benson studied music and dance, and performed in the Birmingham Children's Ballet, as well as in local theater. She attended high school (one of her classmates being Joey Fatone) in Orlando, Florida, after her family moved there, in part to help Amber pursue acting opportunities, the most prominent of which was an unsold television series called *Kids' News*, in which Amber was to have been one of two main anchors. The Bensons then relocated to Los Angeles, and Amber very quickly began to land roles in films and on television.

## Career

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Benson was 14 when she made her feature film debut in the Steven Soderbergh film *King of the Hill*.

Benson is best known for her recurring role as Tara Maclay on the television series *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*. The character first appeared in the season 4 episode "Hush" and soon became the girlfriend of Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan). Benson remained with the series until season 6 when her character was killed off. In her final episode, Benson was credited for the only time as a regular cast member.

Benson sang in the *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* musical episode "Once More, with Feeling". She provided vocals for the songs "I've Got a Theory / Bunnies / If We're Together", "Under Your Spell" (her solo), "Walk Through the Fire", "Standing/Under Your Spell (Reprise)," and "Where Do We Go from Here?" In 2002, she performed two songs on Buffy colleague Anthony Stewart Head's album *Music for Elevators*. She also sang "Toucha Toucha Touch Me" (aka "Creature of the Night") at VH-1's celebrity karaoke tribute to *The Rocky Horror Picture Show*.

While still working on *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*, Benson co-wrote the movie *The Theory of the Leisure Class*  with director Gabriel Bologna, released in 2001, and directed, produced, edited, and acted in a digital video feature called *Chance* (2002) which also featured her *Buffy* co-star James Marsters. She also collaborated with director James Kerwin in 2003 to produce her play *Albert Hall* in Hollywood.

In 2001, Benson worked with Golden, Terry Moore, and Eric Powell of Dark Horse Comics to create the *Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Tara* comic book titled "WannaBlessedBe". The following year (2002), she worked with Christopher Golden and AJ (Ajit Jothikaumar) of Dark Horse Comics to create the *Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Tara* comic books titled *Wilderness #1* and *Wilderness #2*.

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Benson and Christopher Golden produced began a series of animated fantasy films for the BBC with the animation studio Cosgrove Hall. *Ghosts of Albion: Legacy* (2003) and its sequels are available on the BBC Cult website. Benson and Golden have also collaborated on two supernatural thrillers: *Ghosts of Albion: Accursed* and *Ghosts of Albion: Witchery*. These books follow the fortunes of Tamara and William Swift, who first appeared in the BBC computer animated web movie *Ghosts of Albion: Legacy*.

In 2003, she starred in *Latter Days* as Traci Levine, alongside Steve Sandvoss and Wes Ramsey.

In 2005, Benson collaborated with artist Jamie McKelvie on a short story within the Image Comics collection *Four Letter Worlds*. In 2006, Benson collaborated with artist Ben Templesmith on *Demon Father John's Pinwheel Blues* published by IDW as a four-part split-book, *Shadowplay* (with work by Ashley Wood and Christina Z.

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In 2006, Benson released her second independent feature film *Lovers, Liars & Lunatics* through her own production company, Benson Entertainment. The film was shot on film and was partly financed by the sale of limited edition "Triangle" Tara Buffyverse action figure. The project, initially called "The Dirty Script," was ultimately titled *Lovers, Liars and Lunatics* by producer Diane Benson, Amber's mother.

In 2006, Benson also portrayed the "vegetarian" vampiress Lenore on the TV series *Supernatural*.

In December 2006, Benson and Golden released yet another collaboration, the short novel *The Seven Whistlers* which is distributed through Subterranean Press in a limited number of signed copies. In September 2007, Benson signed a three-book deal with Ginjer Buchanan of Penguin Books. *Death's Daughter*, was released by Ace Books on February 24, 2009; *Cat's Claw*, on February 23, 2010; and *Serpent's Storm*, in February 2011. On February 28, 2012, the fourth book in the series, *How to Be Death* was released.

Benson is the co-director with Adam Busch of the 2010 comedy film *Drones*.

In 2012, Benson played a young Judith Collins in the *Dark Shadows* audio drama "Dress Me in Dark Dreams". She guest starred in the second season of the Jane Espenson scripted romantic comedy web series, *Husbands*.

In June 2013, it was announced that Benson has been attached to star in the web TV series adaptation of *The Morganville Vampires* as Amelie, the founder of Morganville.

Benson has narrated the audiobook *Lock In* by John Scalzi. In October 2014 published her fantasy book *The Witches of Echo Park*.

## Activism

During the 2008 campaign season, Benson was featured in a Barack Obama advertisement sponsored by MoveOn.org.

## Personal life

As of 2007, Benson resided in Los Angeles. She described herself as a "lapsed vegetarian".

From 2002 to 2009, she dated Adam Busch, who played Warren Mears on *Buffy the Vampire Slayer.* The two have remained close friends.

## Bibliography

### Books

#### Calliope Reaper-Jones

1. *Death's Daughter* (February 24, 2009)
2. *Cat's Claw* (February 23, 2010)
3. *Serpent's Storm* (February 22, 2011)
4. *How to be Death* (February 28, 2012)
5. *The Golden Age of Death* (Feb 2013)

#### The Witches of Echo Park

1. *The Last Dream Keeper* (Jan 2016)
2. *The End of Magic* (May 2017)

#### Other books

* *The Seven Whistlers* (with Christopher Golden. 2006)
* *Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension* (with Dominic Bisignano, Disney Press, 2017) Template:Isbn

#### Anthologies and Collections

 **Life Inside My Mind** | *Therapy: the gift I gave myself* | Apr 2018

### Comics

#### *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*

* *WannaBlessedBe* (Willow & Tara with Christopher Golden. 2003)
* *Wilderness* (with Christopher Golden)
* "The Innocent" in *Tales of the Slayers*

#### Other Comics

* *Shadowplay* #1–4 (with Ben Templesmith. 2005)
* *Among the Ghosts* (with Sina Grace, illustrator. August 2010)

### Other Media

* *Illusions* (with Christopher Golden. Animated feature, directed by Benson, available on the BBC website)
* The *Ghosts of Albion Roleplaying Game* (with Timothy S. Brannan and Christopher Golden. Eden Studios, 2007)
* *Middlegame* by Seanan McGuire, narrated by Benson
* *Walkaway* by Cory Doctorow, narrated by Benson
* Lock In by John Scalzi, narrated by Benson
* Swarm by Scott Westerfeld, narrated by Benson
* Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, narrated by Benson

## References

1. ↑ Template:Cite book
2. ↑ "Amber Benson Biography (1977–)". http://www.filmreference.com/film/4/Amber-Benson.html. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
3. ↑ "Amber Benson on Buffy, Tara and Willow, Husbands & more...", *Den of Geek* (November 4, 2013). "Amber Benson: "My dad was Jewish, and my mom was raised by Southern Baptists so I saw both ends of the spectrum.""
4. ↑ "Archived copy". http://interviewly.com/i/amber-benson-jan-2015-reddit.
5. ↑ Byrnes, Lindsey (2010-06-08). "An interview with Amber Benson". AfterEllen. http://www.afterellen.com/tv/74272-an-interview-with-amber-benson/4. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
6. ↑ "Amber chatted at Yahoo! on Thursday, March 8, 2001. Here's the transcript, provided by Coax, sans chat typos". The Essence of Amber. March 8, 2001. Archived from the original on May 12, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070512220635/http://fansites.hollywood.com/~amber/article-yahoo0301.html. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
7. ↑ Bloom, Nate (June 6, 2003). "Celebrity Jews", Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Retrieved on December 13, 2006. Archived from the original on October 16, 2006.
8. ↑ Lindsey Byrnes (June 8, 2010). "An interview with Amber Benson". www.afterellen.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100612170658/http://www.afterellen.com/people/2010/6/amber-benson?page=0%2C0. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
9. ↑ "Episode 18: Featuring Amber Benson", RossCarey, accessed May 24, 2011.
10. ↑ "TLA Releasing presents Latter Days". TLA Releasing. p. 16. http://www.tlavideo.com/images/assets/78.pdf. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
11. ↑ Template:Cite book
12. ↑ Template:ISBN
13. ↑ Template:Cite book
14. ↑ Roedel, Jeff. "So, you work with an alien" Template:Webarchive, 225batonrouge.com, September 25, 2008
15. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
16. ↑ Mangani, Josephine (June 17, 2013). "'Buffy' Star Amber Benson Joins 'Morganville' Web Adaptation". http://yabookreviewer.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/buffy-star-amber-benson-joins-morganville-web-adaptation/. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
17. ↑ Caine, Rachel (June 11, 2013). "Morganville: The Web TV Series". http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2059515068/morganville-the-web-tv-series. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
18. ↑ Scalzi, John. "The Lock In Audiobook: Two Versions, Two Narrators. Pre-Order and Get Both". http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/07/02/the-lock-in-audiobook-two-versions-two-narrators-pre-order-and-get-both/. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
19. ↑ The Witches of Echo Park
20. ↑ 'It Could Happen to You'. The video was produced, written and directed by Alex Barreto and brothers Rider Strong and Shiloh Strong who also acted in the ad with Amber. The ad won MoveOn's contest for funniest Obama ad in 2008.
21. ↑ Benson, Amber. "art vs. commerce", Amber Benson's Official Blog, January 29, 2009 Template:Webarchive
22. ↑ "Exclusive Interview with Amber Benson Part 2". Buffyfest. February 26, 2009. http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/2009/02/amber-benson-part-ii.html. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
23. ↑ "Cult – Ghosts of Albion – Astray". BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ghosts/astray/. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
24. ↑ "Cult – Ghosts of Albion – Legacy". BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ghosts/legacy/. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
25. ↑ "The witches of Echo Park". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191016160502/https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=2014035728&searchType=1&permalink=y. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
26. ↑ "The Witches of Echo Park". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191016164612/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/314380/the-witches-of-echo-park-by-amber-benson/9780425268674. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
27. ↑ Template:Cite book
28. ↑ "21st Century Dead". September 27, 2019. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13167096-21st-century-dead?ac=1&from\_search=true.
29. ↑ "An Apple for a Creature". September 27, 2019. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543159-an-apple-for-the-creature.
30. ↑ "Life Inside My Mind". September 27, 2019. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297409-life-inside-my-mind#.
31. ↑ "Among the Ghosts » Blog with Pictures". Sinagrace.com. March 23, 2010. http://sinagrace.com/books/?p=1252. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
32. ↑ Benson, Amber. "Cult Vampires – Ghosts of Albion: Illusions by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden". BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires/newstory/goldenbenson.shtml. Retrieved April 5, 2012.

## External links

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* Amber Benson on Twitter**Lua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 36: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).**Template:WikidataCheck
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* Bean, Krista (May 6, 2012). "Podcast #5: Amber Benson". Scripts & Scribes.
* http://www.amberbenson.tv/

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