Charisma Carpenter Biography

Charisma Lee Carpenter (born July 23, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Cordelia Chase in the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series Angel, for which she was nominated for four Saturn Awards. She was a regular on ABC Family's The Lying Game.

Early life

Carpenter was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, the daughter of Chris, a bird sanctuary worker, and Don Carpenter, a salesman. She is of French and German descent on her father's side and Cherokee and Spanish descent on her mother's side. Her parents named her after an Avon perfume. Carpenter attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas; she was also a part of a song-and-dance troupe which performed in the Las Vegas area beginning when she was nine. When she was 15, her family moved to Rosarito city, Mexico and then to San Diego where she attended Bonita Vista High School and Chula Vista School of the Creative and Performing Arts. After graduation, Carpenter traveled throughout Europe. Once she returned to San Diego again, she worked as a video store clerk, an aerobics instructor, and in property management. In 1991, she worked as a San Diego Charger cheerleader. In 1992, she moved to Los Angeles.

While swimming in San Diego in 1991, she, along with two friends, were attacked by Henry Hubbard Jr., a former San Diego police officer and serial rapist who attempted to subdue her two male friends at gunpoint. During the altercation, her two friends and Hubbard were all shot, forcing him to flee the scene. Her friends survived. Hubbard was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 56 years in prison for a series of rapes and robberies. Carpenter brought Hubbard's police-issue flashlight from the beach, which he had left at the scene, and the flashlight became a key piece of evidence against him.

Career

Carpenter was discovered by a commercial agent while waiting tables in Los Angeles to save money for her college education. This led to her role on theatrical productions and more than twenty commercials. She made her first television role in 1994 by appearing in an episode of Baywatch. Shortly after that, she landed a starring role on Aaron Spelling's short-lived soap opera Malibu Shores.

In 1996, Carpenter auditioned for the title role in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer but instead was cast as Cordelia Chase, a snobby and popular high school student. After three seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Carpenter was offered an even larger role as the same character on the spin-off series Angel along with David Boreanaz. She played Cordelia Chase for four seasons on Angel. Although her character leaves the series during Angels fourth season, Carpenter returned for the 100th episode in the fifth and final season because she felt the character's fans deserved closure.

In 2004, Carpenter had a three episode guest appearance on the TV show Charmed as a psychic demon called The Seer and played a recurring role on NBC's Miss Match, appearing in four episodes. She also had a recurring role as Kendall Casablancas in the TV series Veronica Mars for the 2005"2006 season, appearing in 11 episodes. Carpenter guest-starred in the first season finale of ABC Family's television show Greek and reprised her role in two episodes of Season 2. According to TV Guide in September 2007, she was set to join the cast of The Apprentice: Celebrity Edition, but instead chose to do a guest appearance on the show Back to You as well as a recurring role on the short-lived series Big Shots. Carpenter also had a guest appearance in an April 2009 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

On March 20, 2008, Paley Fest hosted a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion. Carpenter attended the event alongside Buffy creator Joss Whedon, producers Marti Noxon and David Greenwalt, and other Buffy alumni including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield, Amber Benson, Seth Green, and Michelle Trachtenberg.

Carpenter has starred in an assortment of made-for-TV and direct-to-video movies including the sex comedy What Boys Like, the horror film Voodoo Moon, and the romantic comedies See Jane Date and Relative Chaos on ABC Family (the latter of which co-starred fellow Buffy alum Nicholas Brendon). She also appeared in the mysteries Flirting with Danger and Cheaters' Club on Lifetime Television and the Syfy movie House of Bones broadcast in 2010, around the same time as her guest spot in Legend of the Seeker.

Also in 2009, Carpenter starred in production company Red Sparrow's first film, Psychosis, which was released in early 2011. In August 2010, she had a supporting role in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables. After the success of The Expendables, Carpenter was cast in Human Factor and in the indie thriller Crash Site. She appeared in an episode of the seventh season of Supernatural alongside Buffy co-star James Marsters. In 2011, Carpenter landed a recurring role in ABC Family's drama The Lying Game. She was upgraded to a series regular for the second season. In 2012, Carpenter reprised her role as Lacy in The Expendables 2.

In July 2013 at the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion in Paris, Carpenter confirmed she will be in The Expendables 3.

On August 28, 2013, "Surviving Evil" (original working title: "I Survived Evil") debuted on Investigation Discovery, with Carpenter as host; in the premiere episode, Carpenter herself was featured as a crime survivor, revisiting the horrific attack she and two friends suffered at the hands of violent serial rapist and police officer Henry Hubbard Jr. on San Diego's Torrey Pines State Beach in 1991.

Public image

Carpenter was named #31 on Askmen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women 2002 and #44 on their 2005 list. Despite this, Carpenter has stated she does not view herself as a sex symbol.

In the June 2004 issue of Playboy magazine, Carpenter appeared on the cover and in a ten-page nude layout. When asked by People magazine in 2005 about her nude pictorial and whether or not she would ever pose for Playboy again, she replied, "I don't know. I did Playboy for a very specific reason. Not only was it a good financial move, but it was about the place I was at in my life. I had just had my son and I'd gained 50 lbs. during pregnancy. I wanted to get back to my old self. I wanted to feel desirable and sexy. So I thought, 'What if I went full throttle?'

Personal life

Carpenter married Damian Hardy on October 5, 2002. On March 24, 2003, Carpenter gave birth to a son named Donovan Charles Hardy. In March of 2003 during the airing of the fourth season of Angel, the couple separated and their divorce was made final in July 2008.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Josh Kirby... Time Warrior: Chapter 1, Planet of the Dino-Knights	Beth Sullivan	Video
1995	Josh Kirby... Time Warrior: Chapter 2, the Human Pets	Beth Sullivan	Video
1996	Josh Kirby... Time Warrior: Chapter 6, Last Battle for the Universe	Beth Sullivan	Video
2003	What Boys Like	Kim
2010	Psychosis	Susan Golden
2010	'	Lacy
2011	Crash Site	Rita Sanders
2012	'	Lacy
2013	Heaven's Door	Julie
2014	'	Lacy
2014	remake	Anna Crowley

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Baywatch	Wendie Sanders	Episode: "Air Buchannon"
1995	Boy Meets World	Caterer	Episode: "Train of Fools"
1996	Malibu Shores	Ashley Green	Main role (10 episodes)
1997"1999	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Cordelia Chase	Regular role (56 episodes)
1999	Hey Arnold!	Simone (voice)	Episode: "Dinner for Four/Phoebe Skips"
1999"2004	Angel	Cordelia Chase	Main role (89 episodes)
2001	Strange Frequency	Jules	Episode: "Don't Fear the Reaper"
2002	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Cordelia Chase	Video game
2003	See Jane Date	Jane Grant	TV film
2003	Miss Match	Serena Lockner	Episodes: "Most Hopeless Romantics", "Divorce Happens", "Something Nervy", "Santa, Baby"
2004	'	Emma Campbell	Episode: "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"
2004	Like Cats and Dogs	Sarah Hayes	TV film
2004	LAX	Julie Random	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
2004	Charmed	Kira the Seer	Episodes: "Cheaper by the Coven", "Styx Feet Under", "Witchness Protection"
2005"2006	Veronica Mars	Kendall Casablancas	Recurring role (11 episodes)
2006	Flirting with Danger	Laura Clifford	TV film
2006	Voodoo Moon	Heather	TV film
2006	Cheaters' Club	Linda Stern	TV film
2006	Relative Chaos	Katherine	TV film
2007	Back to You	Brooke Schimmel	Episode: "Gracie's Bully"
2007	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "Black & White and Read All Over"
2008	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "Brothers & Sisters"
2008	Big Shots	Janelle Johns	Episodes: "The Better Man", "Who's the Boss?"
2009	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Mink	Episode: "The Descent of Man"
2009	Legend of the Seeker	Triana	Episode: "Marked"
2009	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "See You Next Time, Sisters!"
2010	House of Bones	Heather Burton	TV film
2011	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "Fools Rush In"
2011	Deadly Sibling Rivalry	Janna / Callie	TV film
2011	Burn Notice	Nicki Skyler	Episode: "Better Halves"
2011	'	Sonia Paston	TV film
2011	Supernatural	Maggie Stark	Episode: "Shut Up, Dr. Phil"
2012	Haunted High	Librarian	TV film
2012"2013	'	Ann Rebecca Sewell	Main role (20 episodes)
2013	Surviving Evil	Herself	Episode: "Terror Beach" (also series host)