Amber Nicole Benson (born January 8, 1977) is an American actress, writer, film director, and film producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and directing, starring and producing her own films Chance, Lovers, Liars & Lunatics and the upcoming film Drones.

Early life

Benson was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents are Edward (a psychiatrist) and Diane Benson, and she has a younger sister, Danielle, who is an artist. She had a mixed Christian and Jewish upbringing.
As a child, Amber 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 began to very quickly land roles in films and on television.

Career

Feature and animation films

While still working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Benson wrote, directed, produced, edited, and acted in a digital video feature called Chance (2002) which also featured her Buffy co-star James Marsters. After her time on Buffy, Benson began production on a series of animation films for the BBC with co-creator Christopher Golden and animation studio Cosgrove Hall. Ghosts of Albion: Legacy (2003) and its sequels are available on the BBC Cult website. 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. She is currently working on Drones, a comedy film, which she is co-directing with Adam Busch.

Writing career: novels and comics

Benson also writes novels and comic books mostly in collaboration with Christopher Golden. 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. 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). 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 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. The first book is titled Death's Daughter. Death's Daughter is currently (as of June 2008) listed as an Ace imprint paperback, ISBN 978-0441016945, with a release date of February 24, 2009.

Career: miscellaneous

In 2003, she collaborated with director James Kerwin to produce her play, Albert Hall, in Hollywood.

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 appeared in 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.

She co-wrote the movie The Theory of the Leisure Class in 1997. It co-starred Brad Renfro.

During the 2008 campaign season, Benson was featured in the MoveOn.org-sponsored pro-Barack Obama ad.

Personal life

As of 2007, Benson resides in Los Angeles, California. She is a former vegetarian. As of March 2009, she was dating Adam Busch, who played Warren on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Filmography

• King of the Hill (1993) - as Ella McShane

• The Crush (1993) - as Cheyenne

• S.F.W. (1994) - as Barbara 'Babs' Wyler

• Imaginary Crimes (1994) - as Margaret

• Bye Bye Love (1995) - as Meg Damico

• Can't Hardly Wait (1998) - as Stephanie, the Stoned Banana-holding Girl (scenes deleted from the final cut)

• Take It Easy (1999) - as Justy

• Deadtime (1999) - as Patty

• The Prime Gig (2000) - as Batgirl

• Hollywood, Pennsylvania (2001) - as Mandy Calhoun

• Don's Plum (2001) - as Amy

• Taboo (2002) - as Piper

• Chance (2002) - as Chance

• Latter Days (2003) - as Traci Levine

• Intermedio (2005) - as Barbie

• Race You to the Bottom (2005) - as Maggie

• Lovers, Liars & Lunatics (2006) - as Justine

• Tripping Forward (2006) - as Gwen

• Simple Things (2007) - as Sally

• Girltrash! (2007) - Svetlana 'Lana' Dragovich

• Act Your Age (2008) - as Julia

• Kiss the Bride (2008) - as Elly

• Strictly Sexual (2008) - as Donna

• The Blue Tooth Virgin (2008) - as Jennifer

• One-Eyed Monster (2008) - as Laura

• The Killing Jar (2009) - as Noreen

• Another Harvest Moon (2009) - as Gretchen

Television

(Includes made-for-TV movies and TV series)

• Jack Reed: Badge of Honor (1993) TV movie - Nicole Reed

• Jack Reed: A Search for Justice (1994) TV movie - Nicole Reed

• Jack Reed: One of Our Own (1995) TV movie - Nicole Reed

• Promised Land (1998) TV series - Amy Farnsworth (episode titled "Out of Bounds")

• Cracker (1999) TV series - Amy (episode titled "The Club")

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in 1999-2002 seasons) TV series - Tara Maclay (47 episodes)

• The Enforcers (2001) TV miniseries - Abby

• Cold Case (2004) TV series - Julia Hoffman (episode titled "Volunteers")

• The Inside (2005) TV series - Allison Davis (episode titled "The Perfect Couple")

• Supernatural (2006) TV series - Lenore (episode titled "Bloodlust")

• Holiday Wishes (2006) TV movie - Danni Hartford

• Gryphon (2007) TV movie - Princess Amelia of Lockland

• Long Island Confidential (2008) TV series pilot

• 7 Things to Do Before I'm 30 (2008) TV movie - Lori Madison

• Private Practice (2009) TV series - Jill Duncan

Books in print

Ghosts of Albion

• Accursed (with Christopher Golden) (Del Rey, 2005)

• Witchery (with Christopher Golden) (Del Rey, 2006)

• The Ghosts of Albion Roleplaying Game (with Timothy S. Brannan and Christopher Golden) (Eden Studios, 2007)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• WannaBlessedBe (Willow & Tara (2003) with Christopher Golden)

• Wilderness, Part 1 (with Christopher Golden)

• Wilderness, Part 2 (with Christopher Golden)

Calliope Reaper-Jones

• Death's Daughter (Feb 24,2009)

• Cat's Claw (Feb 23, 2010)

Other

• The Innocent in Tales of the Slayers

• Shadowplay #1-4 (with Ben Templesmith) (2005)

• The Seven Whistlers (with Christopher Golden) (2006)