Birth Name: Charlize Theron
Birth Date: August 7, 1975
Birth Place: Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa
Charlize Theron has treated audiences to an incredibly wide spectrum of performances, ranging from emotional drama to action-adventure to quirky comedy. In 2004, she won an Oscar for Best Actress for her emotionally devastating turn as female serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the independent film, Monster, co-starring Christina Ricci.
She also won the Independent Spirit Award, the National Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, a Golden Globe and several other awards for her performance in the film, which she also produced. In 2006, Theron was nominated again for an Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as for a Golden Globe, SAG and Critics Choice awards for her performance as Josey Aimes in the drama North Country opposite Frances McDormand, Sissy Spacek and Woody Harrelson.
Theron began her career as a model in her native South Africa before coming to the United States to dance with the Joffrey Ballet. Moviegoers were first introduced to her in 1996 in 2 Days in the Valley, with James Spader, Eric Stoltz, and Jeff Daniels. The following year she co-starred with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in the Warner Brothers thriller The Devil’s Advocate. Later that year, Tom Hanks cast Theron in his directorial debut, That Thing You Do! That film was followed by Woody Allen’s Celebrity, Disney’s Mighty Joe Young, and the Oscar-nominated John Irving adaptation The Cider House Rules.
In 2000, Theron tackled back-to-back roles in Robert Redford’s The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith and Matt Damon, Fox 2000’s Men of Honor with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Frankenheimer’s Reindeer Games with Ben Affleck, and Miramax’s The Yards co-starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan and Faye Dunaway. In 2001, Theron shared the screen again with Keanu Reeves in the Warner Brothers romance Sweet November, and reunited with director Woody Allen in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. In 2003, Theron illuminated screens in the Paramount’s hit caper movie The Italian Job, co-starring Mark Wahlberg, before taking on the role of both star and producer in Monster.
Following Monster, she portrayed actress Britt Ekland in HBO’s The Life and Death of Peter Sellars opposite Geoffrey Rush, for which she received Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Emmys. She then starred in the Paramount action adventure Aeon Flux, based on the hugely popular MTV animated series; showed her lighter side with a guest-starring role in the acclaimed comedy series “Arrested Development”; and played a detective in Paul Haggis’ critically acclaimed follow-up to Crash, In the Valley of Elah.
Her appetite for producing increased rapidly over these years and she, along with her film company, Denver and Delilah Films, produced the documentary entitled East of Havana,an unflinching look at Cuba through the eyes of three hip hop artists. She then went on to produce and act in Sleepwalking, starring Nick Stahl and Dennis Hopper. Theron also made an appearance in Stuart Townsend’s forthcoming directorial debut, Battle in Seattle.
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