Theron, Charlize (1975– )

South African-born US actor. Known for her striking, classic statuesque beauty, she appeared type-cast as the romantic interest of the lead character in a number of films from the 1990s such as The Cider House Rules (1999) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), but demonstrated her range and talent playing a real-life serial killer in Monster (2003), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and a police detective in the Iraq war film In the Valley of Elah (2007).

Theron was formerly a ballet dancer, appearing in Swan Lake and The Nutcracker in her native South Africa before travelling to Europe to model in Milan, Italy, and to the USA, where she danced with the Joffrey Ballet company in New York. Other films include The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), Sweet November (2001), The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), and a remake of The Italian Job (2003).

She was born in the farming community of Benoni, near Johannesburg, to a German mother and French father, and her first language was Afrikaans. After an injury interrupted her dancing career, at the encouragement of her mother she moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to pursue a film career.