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Charlize Theron grew up on a farm outside Benoni, South Africa, as the only child. She got an education as a ballet dancer and has danced both The Swan Lake and the Nutcracker Suite. There wasn't much for a young actress or dancer to do in South Africa, so she soon travelled to Europe and USA where she got job at the Joffrey Ballet in New York. She was also able to work as a photo model. However, an injured knee put a halt to her dancing career.
At the age of 18 her mother made her go to Los Angeles to try a career in the movie industry. She came to LA without knowing anyone in the city but after two weeks when she was standing in line on Hollywood Boulevard an agent gave her his card. After eight months in LA she got her first part. Since then she has taken acting lessons and her career has skyrocketed, most lately in The Devil's Advocate (1997).
Charlize began her modeling career in 1991, at 16, when she won a local modeling contest. She started modeling in Europe, and came to New York a year later. She didn't like being a model though, and decided to try her luck with ballet, which had been her biggest passion as a child. Unfortunately, a knee injury prevented her from dancing. Her mother bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles in 1994, and Charlize started visiting all of the agents on Hollywood Bulevard, but without any luck. She went to the bank to cash a check for $500 she'd gotten from her mother, and became furious when she learned that the bank could not cash her check because it was an out-state check. She made a scene, and an agent gave her his card, in exchange that she learn the language, which she did by watching soap operas on TV. Her first role was as a young mother in a park in a B-film in 1995, but it was a non-speaking role with three seconds of screen time. Her next role was as Helga in 2 Days in the Valley (1996), which landed her the role of Tina in That Thing You Do! (1996). Since then, she has starred in movies like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and The Italian Job (2003). An important day in her life was February 29th, 2004, when she was awarded with her first Academy Award for her performance in Monster (2003).
