Julia was born in the small neighborhood of Meadowvale in Ontario, Canada. She is now an actress, stunt performer, and stage combat instructor specializing in Western fencing, based in Toronto. She studied acting at the Stella Adler School in New York and attended the physical theater program at Humber College in Toronto.

Julia is a co-founder of Violence in Motion, a training center for film and stage combat for artists. She has a golden retriever named Lieutenant Ripley, named after Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien.