Early life

Carpenter was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, the daughter of Christine, a bird sanctuary worker, and Don Carpenter, a salesman. She has two older brothers, Ken and Troy, and two nieces, Chrissy and Mackenzie. She is of Spanish (from her maternal grandfather), French, and German descent. 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. Carpenter has a large scar on her belly from a childhood accident. At the age of five, playing around a swimming pool that was still under construction, she fell onto a piece of rebar. In Lovers Walk, the eighth episode of the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, her character suffers an identical injury in similar circumstances.

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 and 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 TV 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 Angel's 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 series Charmed as a psychic demon called Kyra 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 the ABC Family comedy-drama series 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 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.

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, in Las Vegas. On March 24, 2003, Carpenter gave birth to a son named Donovan Charles Hardy. In late 2007, 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	Expendables, TheThe Expendables	Lacy
2012	Expendables 2, TheThe Expendables 2	Lacy
2012	Heaven's Door	Julie
2015	Bound	Michelle Mulan

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	Main role (Seasons 1-3; 54 episodes)
1999-2004	Angel		Main role (Seasons 1-5; 86 episodes)
1999	Hey Arnold!	Simone (voice)	Episode: "Dinner for Four/Phoebe Skips"
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
	Miss Match	Serena Lockner	Episodes: "Most Hopeless Romantics", "Divorce Happens", "Something Nervy", "Santa, Baby"
2004	Division, TheThe Division	Emma Campbell	Episode: "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"
	Like Cats and Dogs	Sarah Hayes	TV film
	LAX	Julie Random	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
	Charmed	Kyra	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
	Voodoo Moon	Heather	TV film
	Cheaters' Club	Linda Stern	TV film
	Relative Chaos	Katherine	TV film
2007	Back to You	Brooke Schimmel	Episode: "Gracie's Bully"
	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "Black & White and Read All Over"
2008			Episode: "Brothers & Sisters"
	Big Shots	Janelle Johns	Episodes: "The Better Man", "Who's the Boss?"
2009	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Mink	Episode: "The Descent of Man"
	Legend of the Seeker	Triana	Episode: "Marked"
	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "See You Next Time, Sisters!"
	House of Bones	Heather Burton	TV film
2011	Crash Site: A Family in Danger	Rita Saunders	TV film
	Greek	Tegan Walker	Episode: "Fools Rush In"
	Deadly Sibling Rivalry	Janna / Callie	TV film
	Burn Notice	Nicki Skyler	Episode: "Better Halves"
	Trusted Man, AA Trusted Man	Sonia Paston	TV film
2011	Supernatural	Maggie Stark	Episode: "Shut Up, Dr. Phil"
2012	Haunted High	Persia the Librarian	TV film
2012-2013	The Lying Game	Rebecca Sewell	Main role (20 episodes)
2013-present	Surviving Evil	Herself	Episode: "Terror Beach" (also series host)
2013	Blue Bloods	Maryanne	Episode: "Growing Boys"
2014	Sons of Anarchy	Carol	Episode: "Red Rose"
2015	A Horse Tail	Samantha Harrison	TV film
	Scream Queens	Mrs. Herfmann	Episode: "Chainsaw"
2016	Chicago P.D.	Brianna Logan	A Night Owl

[ Source: Wikipedia ]