Charlize Theron

     Charlize Theron (born August 7, 1975) is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model. She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules. She received critical acclaim and an Academy Awardserial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film for her portrayal of Monster, for which she became the first African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country.

     At the age of 16, Theron travelled to Milan on a one-year modeling contract, after winning a local competition. She went to New York with Pauline's Model Management. She decided to remain after her contract ended, attending the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer. A knee injury closed this career path when Theron was 19.

      Unable to dance, Theron flew to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket her mother bought her. During her early months there, she went to a bank to cash a cheque her mother had sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash it, Theron immediately started a shouting match with her. Afterwards, a talent agent in line behind her handed her his business card and subsequently introduced her to some casting agents and also an acting school. She later fired him as her manager after he kept sending her scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species. After eight months in the city, she was cast in her first film part, a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn III (1995). Her breakout role was a supporting but significant part in 2 Days in the Valley, but larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career skyrocketed in the late 1990s with box office successes like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998) and The Cider House Rules (1999). She was on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Vanity Fair as the "White Hot Venus".

      On December 4, 2009, Theron co-presented the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, accompanied by several other celebrities of South African origin. During rehearsals she drew an Ireland ball instead of France as a joke at the expense of FIFA, referring to Thierry Henry's handball controversy in the play off match between France and Ireland. The stunt alarmed FIFA enough for it to fear she might do it again in front of a live global audience.

Filmography

1995 Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest
1996 2 Days in the Valley
          That Thing You Do!
1997 Hollywood Confidential
           Trial and Error
           The Devil's Advocate
1998 Celebrity
           Mighty Joe Young
1999 The Astronaut's Wife
           The Cider House Rules
2000  Reindeer Games
          The Yards
          The Legend of Bagger Vance
           Men of Honor
2001 Sweet November
          The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
          15 Minutes
2002 Trapped
           Waking Up in Reno
2003 The Italian Job
           Monster
2004 The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
           Head in the Clouds
2005 North Country
           Æon Flux
2007 In the Valley of Elah
2008 Sleepwalking
          Hancock
          Battle in Seattle
2009 The Burning Plain
           The Road
           Astro Boy
2011 Prometheus