Profile of Fairuza Balk on Famous Like Me

Fairuza Alejandra Balk (born May 21, 1974) is an American film actress.

She is probably most famous for her participation in the 1996 movie The Craft and in the 1985 sequal to The Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz.

Fairuza was born in Point Reyes, California to Cathryn Balk, a Dutch-American belly dancer and Solomon Feldthouse, a Gypsy travelling musician. Balk is said to have been named Fairuza because her father, of Gypsy (Roma) heritage, exclaimed that word the moment she was born; Fairuza (Firouzeh) meaning "turquoise" in Persian and Balk's eyes being of that color. Soon after her parents split, Fairuza became a world traveler. Raised for the first part of her life in San Francisco, she and her mother moved to Vancouver when Fairuza was 9. At 11 she moved to London, where she attended various prestigious ballet and acting schools. At that age also she was picked by the Walt Disney Company to star in the movie Return to Oz. In 1988 she moved to Paris to do more work as an actress, and by 1989 she was back in Vancouver, where she began to attend high school. Soon, however, she decided to take correspondence courses instead.

She then went back to Hollywood, where she gained increasing notice as an actress. In 1992 she was awarded an Independent Spirit Award as best actress for her performance in the Allison Anders film Gas Food Lodging.

Balk was soon cast in The Craft, in which her character forms a teenage coven along with the characters portrayed by Neve Campbell, Rachel True and Robin Tunney. This was particularly appropriate casting as Balk studies Wicca in real life and was part owner of a store dedicated to that religion named Panpipes Magickal. (She has since sold her interest in the store and is no longer affiliated with it in any way.)

Balk also had a memorable performance as a neo-nazi opposite Edward Norton in American History X.

Trivia

• • Fairuza has been romantically linked to British actor David Thewlis.
  • She also dated Marilyn Manson, but they have since split.
  • Fairuza belly dances which she did in the movie The Island of Dr Moreau.
  • She is a Wiccan.
  • She has five cats: MoMo, Scout, Oscar, Sweetpea Poteet Tennessee, and Mouse.
  • She has nine tattoos, including a triangle tattoo on her shoulder that serves as a reminder of the Nazis' treatment of Gypsies during World War II.
  • Her nickname is Ru.
  • Her favorite authors include: William Burroughs, James Joyce, Isabelle Allende, Michael Bulgako, Jung, Oscar Wilde, and recently Ernest Hemingway and Balzac.
  • She is a Gemini.
  • She was in a band as the lead singer.
  • She is rumored to have married her bandmate Steve Gilmore.

Filmography

• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1983, TV)
• Return to Oz (1985)
• The Walt Disney Comedy and Magic Review (1985, video)
• Deceptions (1986, TV)
• The Worst Witch (1986, TV)
• Discovery (1986)
• Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987, TV), as Barbara Hutton at 12
• The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1988)
• Valmont (1989)
• Deadly Intentions....Again (1991, TV)
• Gas Food Lodging (1992)
• Shame (1992, TV)
• The Danger of Love (1992, TV)
• Murder in the Heartland (1993, TV)
• Imaginary Crimes (1994)
• Tollbooth (1994)
• Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), alongside Andy Garcia
• Shadow of a Doubt (1995, TV)
• The Craft (1996)
• The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996)
• The Maker (1997)
• American Perfekt (1997)
• There's no Fish Food in Heaven (1998)
• American History X (1998)
• The Waterboy (1998)
• The Sopranos (TV, appearing in three episodes in 1999 and 2001)
• Family Guy (TV animated series, three episodes from 1999-2001)
• Red Letters (2000)
• Almost Famous (2000)
• Personal Velocity (2002)
• Deuces Wild (2002)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002 video game), as "Mercedes Cortez"
• What Is It? (2003)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Fairuza Balk