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Biography
"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.
Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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Fairuza Balk
