Charlize Theron - Biography

Charlize Theron was born on August 7, 1975 in Benoni, South Africa to Charles Theron and Gerda. Her father was a owner of construction company and is of French Huguenot descent, while her mother is of German descent and took over her husband's business after his death.

Childhood: She is the only child to her parents grew up on her parents' farm near Johannesburg (Benoni). When she was 6, she began ballet and wanted to continue this as her career, and eventually go professional in Johannesburg. At the age of 13, she was sent to boarding school. Charlize witnessed the death of her father. Charlize's father was an abusive alcoholic and died when Charlize's mother shot him in self-defense when he attacked her. She lost her father when she was 15.

Modeling and Dancing Career: Charlize started modeling in Milan, Italy at the age of 16. Before that she has own a local modeling contest. But Charlize found that modeling is not satisfying for her. On the last day of her shoot in New York City, she decided not to return to Milan. Charlize returned back to her first love that is dancing. She studied dance in New York's Joffrey Ballet school. At 18, she got a knee injury, she was unable to dance and her ballet career ended.

Hollywood Entry: Charlize talk about her trouble to her mother, her mother recalled her childhood passion towords cinema and suggested to try her hand in movies. Her mother sent her money for one-way ticket to Los Angeles. In 1994, a scene at bank in the LA changed her luck. The scene was somewhat like that the teller refused to cash the check because it was drawn on an out-of-state bank. While she was arguing to the teller, the hollywood talent manager John Crosby was standing in line behind her. He helped Charlize by explaing that she could cash her out-of-state check at any post office and asked if she was an actress. At that time she replied that she was not. But after asking around and friends she discovered that Crosby was entirely reputable, she got in touch with him, and he agreed to take her on as a client.

Big Break: After eight months of struggle, she get casted in the direct-to-video film "Children of the Corn III" in 1995. It was a non speaking role of a young mother with three seconds of screen time. But finally she got starrted in "2 Days in the Valley" (1996) as a Helga, which led her to a role of Tina in "That Thing You Do!" (1996). Since then she was starred in several Hollywood movies and gave many box office successes like "The Devil's Advocate" (1997), "The Cider House Rules" (1999), and "Mighty Joe Young" (1998). She is proved to be very successful in late 1990's.

In 2000's, her movies include "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000) and "The Italian Job" (2003), Reindeer Games (2000), The Yards (2000), Sweet November (2001), Trapped (2002), Waking Up in Reno (2002), Monster (2003).

Oscar Winning Performance: It was "Monster" that led Charlize to win a Oscar Award for Best Actress in 2003. Roger Ebert a film critic said that it was one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema. It was the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004. She was also awarded by the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award. Charlize is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress.

In 2004 she did "Head in the Clouds" (2004), while in 2005 her projects include Aeon Flux (2005) and North Country (2005). For North Country she was nominated for Academy Award as Best Actress. Her upcoming movies are The Brazilian Job (2006), The Ice at the Bottom of the World (2007), and Jinx (2007).

Personal life
Charlize was dated Stephan Jenkins the lead singer of Third Eye Blind from January 1998 to July 2001. They broke up when Jenkins failing to take her requests of marriage seriously.
Now she resides in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in the 2004 film "Head in the Clouds", as well as in the 2002 film "Trapped".