About The Cast
FAIRUZA BALK plays Nancy, the cunning
and treacherous leader of the witches. When Balk was nine she
debuted as Dorothy in Disney's Return to Oz. She went from
that auspicious start to appearing as a rape victim living in
a small town in the TV movie Shame, a performance which
garnered her a Best Actress nod at the Cable Ace Awards.
Balk next co-starred opposite Tim
Roth as teenaged runaway Caril Ann Fugate in Starkweather:
Murder in the Heartland. Other feature credits include Valmont
and Allison Anders's coming-of-age tale Gas-Food-Lodging.
For her outstanding performance in Gas-Food-Lodging, Balk
received the coveted Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress.
Her recent film credits include Things to do in Denver When You're Dead, Imaginary Crimes, opposite Harvey Keitel and Louise Fletcher, and Tollbooth. She is currently starring opposite Marlon Brando in the feature film remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau, directed by John Frankenheimer. Fairuza plays Aissa the Cat, a genetically mutated half-cat, half-woman.
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ROBIN TUNNEY, who plays Sarah, the
vulnerable newcomer to the coven of teenage witches, hails from
the South side of Chicago where she attended Catholic High School
at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory. Tunney notes that it was
"good training" for The Craft's setting of St.
Benedict's Academy.
Tunney
studied acting at the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts,
spending her summer performing in such plays as Bus Stop and
Agnes of God. She moved to Los Angeles on her own at the
age of eighteen and shortly landed roles in such television shows
as Life Goes On, Class of '96 (recurring), Law
and Order, HBO's Dream On and the ABC mini-series J.F.K.:
Reckless Youth in which she played Kit Kennedy.
The Craft is Tunney's first film lead though she has appeared in supporting roles in Encino Man and Empire Records in which Tunney played a suicidal punk rocker. She recently co-starred in TNT's Riders Of The Purple Sage opposite Ed Harris, Amy Madigan and Henry Thomas directed by Charlie Haid. Robin has just finished filming Nowhere directed by Gregg Araki, starring James Duvall, Christina Applegate and Kathaleen Robertson which is due to be released later this year.
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NEVE CAMPBELL plays Bonnie, the
tortured and insecure teenager badly burned and scarred in a fire.
Campbell, best known for her role as the scholarly but rebellious
Julia Salinger on the Golden Globe Award-winning Fox series Party
of Five, hails from Toronto, Canada where she got her start
as a classical dancer. She is trained in six different varieties
of dance, including ballet, and performed with the National Ballet
of Canada in both Conservatoire and The Nutcracker.
Campbell made her acting debut in The Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages in Toronto in a production directed by Hal Prince. Her television work includes a starring role opposite Patrick Stewart in The Canterville Ghost (ABC/Hallmark) and the NBC M.O.W. I Know My Son is Alive, opposite Corbin Bernsen. She also starred in the series Catwalk and has made numerous television guest star appearances.
Her feature film credits include Baree with Jeff Fahey and Alex Chapple's Ruskin. She's currently in production starring in Wes Craven's Scary Movie, with Courtney Cox, Drew Barrymore, David Arquette and Skeet Ulrich.
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RACHEL TRUE plays Rochelle, the
overachiever of the group of witches who "hides her scars
on the inside." Born in New York City, True wanted to be
an actress ever since she was a child watching her renowned step-mother,
Verona Barnes, perform in theater. Her first break came with
a role on The Cosby Show playing a friend of Theo's and
she was brought back for three more episodes. Next up was a pilot
for PBS entitled Pathfinder, followed by the television
special Stalking Back (NBC), Tall Hopes (CBS) and
the ABC Afterschool Special, Stood up.
True moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to act in her first feature, entitled CB4, a rap parody directed by Tamra Davis for Universal Pictures. True has also appeared in a recurring role on HBO's Dream On, as well as in a short film called Squids. She has also appeared in the feature film Embrace of the Vampire (New Line) starring Alyssa Milano. She next stars in the independent film Nowhere for director Gregg Araki.
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SKEET ULRICH, who plays Chris, the
cocky football jock with eyes for Sarah. Born and raised in North
Carolina, Skeet first came to prominence while an undergraduate
at NYU. Performing in stage productions there, he subsequently
apprenticed with David Mamet at the Atlantic Theatre Company where
he performed in a number of productions, including Reckless
and Hedda Gabler. He also performed with the Naked
Angels Theatre Company and with the Drama Department.
On film, Ulrich was directed by
Stacey Cochran opposite Winona Ryder in Boys. He will
soon be seen opposite Sharon Stone in Bruce Beresford's Last
Dance, and opposite Gary Sinise and Viggo Mortenson in Kevin
Spacey's Albino Alligator. He is currently shooting Touch
opposite Bridget Fonda and directed by Paul Schrader. Immediately following, he will star in Miramax's Scary Movie opposite
Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz.
ASSUMPTA SERNA plays Lirio, the owner of the occult store who instructs the four girls in the ways of magic and witchcraft. Serna, the recipient of sixteen major Best Actress awards for her international work in films, television and theater (in French in the Comedy Française in Paris) began acting when she departed law school for the anti-Franco theater movement in Spain. In Carlos Saura's Sweet Hours, ('81) Assumpta played her fourth leading role, the first to bring her international recognition.
American audiences first saw her incandescent femme fatale in Pedro Almodovar's Matador (1988). She has since appeared in a recurring role on Falcon Crest, co-starred in Michael Mann's Drug Wars mini-series and Sam Fuller's Day of Reckoning, and starred in the NBC movie Wisdom Keeper.
Serna received the Spanish Directors Guild Best Actress of the Year Award for her performance in the 1993 Spanish Oscar entry The Fencing Master. She also starred in the acclaimed American Independent film Chain of Desire and appeared opposite British actor Sean Bean in the Napoleonic epic 6 1/2 hours of Sharpe's series, a British film-series on PBS.
In March 1996, she won the ACE Award
in New York for I, the Worst of All, Maria Luisa Bemberg's
1990 film. Other film roles include Wild Orchid opposite
Mickey Rourke, Nostradamus, opposite Rutger Hauer and F.
Murray Abraham, and Short Cut to Paradise with Charles
Dance.
HELEN SHAVER has starred in such films as The Osterman Weekend, The Color of Money, The Believers, Zebrahead, That Night and Desert Hearts, the latter of which earned her the Bronze Leopard Award at Switzerland's Locano Film Festival.
Critics have acclaimed Shaver's additional performances, including her CableAce Award-nominated performance in the two-hour premiere of Showtime's The Outer Limits, entitled The SandKings. Additionally, Shaver garnered a Genie Award for her performance in In Praise of Older Women, and a Theater World Award for her starring role opposite Alan Alda in the Broadway production of Neil Simon's Jake's Women.
Shaver is currently starring in Showtime's critically-praised supernatural series Poltergeist: The Legend, as well as the Republic Pictures release Open Season, opposite writer-director Robert Wuhl. Additionally, she has completed work on The Amateurs, directed by Masato Harada.
Born
and raised in Toronto, Shaver currently lives on a farm in Texas
with her husband and young son.