On This Day

Birthday of Charlize Theron

August 7th 1975

16:42 7 August 2024

South African and American actress and producer Charlize Theron was born on this day in 1975. In 1991 aged 16, Theron left her native South Africa for Europe and New York to work as a ballet dancer and model. In 1994 after a knee injury halted her dancing career she headed to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. Her first role came with a short non-speaking part in 'Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest' (1995).

A more significant part followed in '2 Days in the Valley' (1996) which in turn led to starring roles in 'That Thing You Do' (1996), 'The Devil's Advocate' (1997), 'Mighty Joe Young' (1998), 'The Cider House Rules' (1999), 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' (2000) and 'The Italian Job' (2003). Theron won her first Academy Award for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in 'Monster (2003). More recently she has ventured into film production and shown her versatility as not just one of the finest actors of her generation with strong dramatic roles in 'Tully' (2018) and 'Bombshell' (2019) but also as a major action star in 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015), 'Atomic Blonde' (2017), 'The Old Guard' (2020) and 'Fast X' (2023). Happy Birthday Charlize.