Charlize Theron

Her hard working parents instilled genuine family values in her. At the age of 6, young Charlize began studying ballet, a pursuit that would command her attention throughout her adolescent years. Whenever she was not dancing, she devoted her free time to a consuming passion for American movies.

Charlize had to use dance and her imagination to entertain herself when not tending for the farm animals. After dancing in Johannesburg, she began modeling in Milan, Italy by the time she was 16.

After tiring of modeling, Theron returned to her first love, dancing, which resulted in a move to New York to dance with the Joffrey Ballet. Unfortunately, her career was halted by a knee injury, which led Theron at her mother's behest to travel to Los Angeles to try her luck with acting.

Charlize eventually ended up in line at a bank with the final check from her various employments in New York, and threw an impressive tantrum when the teller refused to cash the check because it was drawn on an out-of-state bank. Hollywood talent manager John Crosby happened to be standing in line behind her, and, after helpfully explaining that she could cash her out-of-state check at any post office, asked if she were, perchance, an actress. Somewhat flustered, Theron replied that she wasn't, but that she fully intended to become one.

With no money to pay for a coach to perfect her English accent, Charlize set out to lose her South African accent by singing along to popular music and watching television shows to study the American accent.

Months of unsuccessful auditions, enough to daunt the less-dedicated, finally led, in 1996, to a bit part in a Children of the Corn sequel, and a steamy turn in 2 Days in the Valley. She was cast in That Thing You Do!, after Tom Hanks was extremely impressed by her knack for acting. She then appeared in 1997's Trial and Error, co-starring Michael Richards, and had a supporting role in The Devil's Advocate, which starred Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino.

She was noticed and work began to come in steadily. The subsequent Mighty Joe Young, 1998 netted Theron more positive notices. Her ascent was confirmed with her casting in Celebrity, Woody Allen's 1998 cameo-fest that also featured turns from everyone from Kenneth Branagh to Winona Ryder to Leonardo DiCaprio to Isaac Mizrahi.

She was rewarded with more substantial not to mention multilayered work in The Cider House Rules, 1999, Lasse Hallström's Oscar-winning adaptation of John Irving's novel.

The same year she starred in John Frankenheimer's Reindeer Games with Ben Affleck. Next, Theron played Adelle in Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith and Matt Damon.

She starred in Sweet November, 2001, the last of which reunited her with erstwhile co-star Keanu Reeves. Theron was also reunited with Woody Allen in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, 2001, another widely anticipated film that, despite a high-profile cast and stylish period design, was both a critical and commercial underachiever.

In 2003 Theron switched gears and dove headfirst into the "serious actress" category with her starring role in Monster, the crime drama based upon the real-life story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

On her personal front, she was reportedly upset by a 1999 Playboy centrefold dating from that time, and had actually sued one purveyor of photos back in 1998. The actor also sued, and won the right to, her web domain name, charlize-theron.com. A flurry of controversy surrounded Theron's appearance in an anti-rape advertisement in South Africa, but the hometown star's support for the campaign, that opponents labelled "anti-man," didn't waver. Charlize previously dated actor Craig Bierko of The Long Kiss Goodnight, while Third Eye Blind lead vocalist Stephan Jenkins, has been her love interest for the past two years.