| Fairuza Alejandra Balk was born, May 21, 1974. Her father Solomon Feldthouse was a traveling musician, and her mother Cathryn Balk was a belly dancer. Unfortunately her parents split up soon after she was born, and Fairuza grew up just north of San Francisco on a commune-type ranch. Fairuza later moved to Vancouver because her mother found work in Vancouver, it was there that Fairuza got her first acting job in a TV-movie, at the age of 9. Two years later, they jetted off to England, where Fairuza attended the Royal Academy of Ballet, the Ramona Beauchamp Agency and the Bush Davies Performing Arts School. At age 11 she was chosen from out of 1,200 girls to play the part of Dorothy, starring in famous "Return to Oz" (1985). A year later she would star as, prophetically enough, "The Worst Witch" (a harbinger of her breakout role in "The Craft" 10 years later). Fairuza and her mother remained in London until 1988, then headed to Paris where the 15-year-old Fairuza starred in "Valmont." The next year they returned to Vancouver where Fairuza enrolled in high school. But, despite being a movie star, Fairuza was shy in class; she ended up doing correspondence courses. Fairuza starred has starred in many Hollywood movies, including "Gas Food Lodging" (1992) for which she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress. Following further TV and film work, achieved cult status with her starring role as a teenage witch in her signature movie "The Craft" (1996). This movie gave Fairuza her greatest fame. The same year she appeared in "The Island of Dr. Moreau, " in which she did some belly dancing, and attracted the attention of Lancashire, England-born costar David Thewlis. They did 2 more movies together, "American Perfekt" (1997) and "Great Sex" (2000). Fairuza was the love interest in the wildly popular flick "The Waterboy" (1998) and had a major role in "American History X".
| |
