Faith
(Eliza Dushku)
Faith is another Slayer, summoned into action following the death of Kendra (in Becoming - Part Two), and she immediately offers to assist Buffy in the fight against the forces of evil. After being regaled with tales of her adventures, Giles and the team soon discover that Faith's Watcher is not, as she claimed, attending a retreat in the Cotswolds, but was in fact killed by a bestial vampire, Kakistos.
After helping Buffy defeat Kakistos, Giles receives instructions from the Watcher's Council: he is to train Faith and Buffy. Buffy has her reservations, after seeing Faith take pleasure from brutally battering a vampire before staking him (she tells Giles that Faith "isn't playing with a full deck"). Faith's sparky personality looks likely to cause friction among the gang.
Eliza Dushku was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 30th, 1980. She trained as a dancer studying ballet, jazz and tap. Her acting career took off after she won a role alongside Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell in the 1992 movie 'That Night'. Since then she has appeared in James Cameron s 1994 blockbuster 'True Lies' (as Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter, Dana); as Pearl in Michael Caton-Jones critically-lauded 'This Boy's Life' (with Ellen Barkin, Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio); and as Paul Reiser's sulky daughter in the 1995 comedy 'Bye, Bye Love'. She has regularly appeared on stage, at the Watertown Children's Theatre, which she has attended for many years, often providing signing for the deaf. She has three older brothers, including actor Nate. Her father is a professor at Boston University.
Dushku's only real worry is her convincing role as Faith - apparently she's a big hero on death row and in maximum security wings, and receives an awful lot of letters from some "creepy" guys...