Charlize Theron

2 titles

Date of Birth: 1975-08-07 (age 51)
Nationality: South Africa
Place of birth: Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa

Mini Bio

Charlize Theron (/ʃɑːrˈliːz ˈθɛrən/ shar-LEEZ THERR-ən; Afrikaans: [ʃarˈlis ˈtrɔn]; born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 2016, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Theron came to international prominence in the 1990s by playing the leading lady in the Hollywood films The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). She received critical acclaim for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003), for which she won the Silver Bear and Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first South African to win an acting Oscar. She received another Academy Award nomination for playing a sexually abused woman seeking justice in the drama North Country (2005). Theron has starred in several commercially successful action films, including The Italian Job (2003), Hancock (2008), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Prometheus (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), Atomic Blonde (2017), The Old Guard (2020), F9 (2021), and Fast X (2023). She received praise for playing troubled women in Jason Reitman's comedy-dramas Young Adult (2011) and Tully (2018) and for portraying Megyn Kelly in the biographical drama Bombshell (2019), for which she received her third Academy Award nomination. Since the early 2000s, Theron has ventured into film production with her company Denver and Delilah Productions. She has produced numerous films, in many of which she had a starring role, including The Burning Plain (2008), Dark Places (2015), and Long Shot (2019). Theron became an American citizen in 2007, while retaining her South African citizenship. She has been honoured with a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Backstage

When she was age 15, her father attacked her mother, and her mother shot back and killed him. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defense, and her mother was not charged in the incident.
After winning her Oscar, she returned to great celebrations in her native South Africa, and she even met former South African President Nelson Mandela. When he praised her for putting their country on the map and gave her a hug, Theron broke into tears (she was guest of honor at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on March 11, 2004).
Always speaks Afrikaans with her mother, who resides two minutes from her in Los Angeles. They have matching fish tattoos.
Suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to the extent that, if renting a house/hotel room during a movie shoot, cannot relax until she has explored every closet, locker and drawer in the premises.
At age 16, she won a modeling competition to go to Milan, Italy, and work on the catwalks and, at age 18, won a scholarship to study ballet at the Joffrey School in New York. She turned to acting only because she injured both knees, dashing any hopes of a ballet career.
On the show Sunday Morning Shootout (2003), it was revealed that her manager discovered her in a Hollywood bank after he witnessed her shouting at a bank teller for refusing to cash her check.
As a teenager in her native South Africa, she learned English by watching American television.
(May 3, 2019) Revealed that she landed in the hospital for five days after watching Borat (2006). She went to go see the film while she had a pre-existing injury in her neck - a herniated disk in her neck. She laughed so hard that her neck locked up. An ambulance had to take her to the hospital. Though the movie came out nearly 15 years ago, Theron said she's never had a chance to pick up where she left off.
Has her own charity called the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, which is committed to reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and sexual violence among African youth.
Her first language is Afrikaans (South African Dutch) and she did not become fluent in English until she came to the United States as a teenager. Consequently, American is her natural accent when speaks English.

Movies

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