One Of My Favorite Dexter Characters

Mini Bio

Actress Jennifer Carpenter grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and attended Sacred Heart Academy there. After that, attended the Walden Theatre Conservatory in Louisville and then the Juilliard School in New York City to further her education. She was cast in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, even before graduation.

Carpenter rose to prominence after her portrayal in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which was based in part on her ability to twist her body and face in frightful ways (as Scott Derrickson explains on the DVD commentary, pointing out that most of her “demonic” contortions were achieved without the use of visual effects). She won a Hollywood Life Breakthrough Award and an MTV Movie Award for “Best Frightened Performance” in 2006.

Carpenter is presently starring as Debra Morgan in the Showtime drama Dexter, which aired on October 1, 2006.Some critics have praised her portrayal of the main character’s sister, with Australian journalist Jack Marx calling her “cool and clumsy” performance “so great that many viewers appear to have mistaken the character’s shortcomings for the actor’s.”

In 2007, it was widely known that she was dating Michael C. Hall, her Dexter co-star.They announced their elopement on New Year’s Eve in California in early January 2009. That relationship has since been absolved, there is still a lot of love between the actors.