2 Mini Bios
Back To The Main
Biography Page
Mini Bio 1!
"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.
Mini Bio 2!
Fairuza Balk began her career as a child on the ABC
special "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," and the
Disney movie "Return to Oz." She attended the Bush
Davies Performing Arts School in the UK for two and a half years,
where she landed a series of jobs. She won a CableAce award as
Best Actress for her role in the TV movie "Shame," and
won the Independent Spirit Award for Best actress for "Gas-Food-Lodging."
She can currently be seen in "The Waterboy" and "American
History X."
