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| "Fairuza!" her father exclaimed as he saw her blue eyes (that's "turquoise" in Persian); Fairuza Alejandra Balk had just been born, May 21, 1974. Her father Solomon Feldthouse was a traveling musician, and her mother Cathryn Balk was a belly dancer. Her parents split up soon after. Fairuza grew up just north of San Francisco on a commune-type ranch. Her mother later found some work in Vancouver, it was there that Fairuza got her first acting job in a TV-movie, at age 9. Two years later, it was off to England; Fairuza attended the Royal Academy of Ballet, the Ramona Beauchamp Agency and the Bush Davies Performing Arts School. Fairuza would work 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 and her mother 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. But, despite being a movie star, Fairuza was shy in class; she ended up doing correspondence courses. 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, now 5'3" and 100 lbs, achieved cult status with her starring role as a teenage witch in her signature movie "The Craft" (1996). This movie gave Fairuza her greatest fame; (in real life, she owns a Wiccan shop, "Panpipes Magickal" in Hollywood). 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; it was rumored that they were dating. They did 2 more movies together: "American Perfekt" (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" (which is in IMDb's Top 250 movie list). With a half dozen movies for 2000, Fairuza is much in demand. Her interests are: writing poetry and stories; playing the guitar; singing (her main enjoyment); and dancing. Fairuza lives in Venice, CA, and has an apartment in New York City. As befits a Wiccan, she has 5 cats (familiars?), named: MoMo, Scout, Oscar, Sweetpea Poteet Tennessee, and Mouse. |
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