Fairuza Balk was born on 21
May 1974 in Point Reyes, California, USA. Her birth name is
Fairuza Alejandra Balk, her nickname Ru.
Fairuza grew up north of San Francisco on a commune-type
ranch, but got her first acting job in Vancouver on the ABC
special THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (1983), at age 9.
Two years later, she went to England and attended the Royal
Academy of Ballet, the Ramona Beauchamp Agency and the Bush
Davies Performing Arts School. Fairuza worked for Disney for
a while; at age 11 she was chosen from out of 1,200 girls
to play the part of Dorothy, starring in RETURN TO OZ (1985).
A year later she would star as, prophetically enough, THE
WORST WITCH (a harbinger of her breakout role in THE CRAFT
10 years later). Fairuza remained in London until 1988, then
headed to Paris where the 15-year-old Fairuza starred in VALMONT.
The next year they returned to Vancouver where Fairuza enrolled
in high school. Back in Hollywood, Fairuza starred in a string
of movies, including GAS FOOD LODGING (1992) for which she
received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress.
Following further TV and film work, the beautiful Fairuza
achieved cult status with her starring role as a teenage witch
in her signature movie THE CRAFT (1996). The same year she
appeared in THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, in which she did some
belly dancing, and attracted the attention of Lancashire,
England-born costar David Thewlis. They did two more movies
together: AMERICAN PERFECT (1997) and GREAT SEX (2000). Fairuza
was the love interest in the wildly popular flick THE WATERBOY
(1998) and had a major role in AMERICAN HISTORY X.
She has nine tattoos, one is a triangle tattoo because the
Nazis branded the symbol on the gypsies in concentration camps.
This is her way of paying respect to her culture and remembering
the suffering her ancestors endured. She is of Persian and
Gypsy heritage. Her interests are: writing poetry and stories;
playing the guitar; singing and dancing.
Fairuza lives in Venice, California, USA and has an apartment
in New York City, New York, USA.
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