Charlize Theron Biography

Charlize Theron (born August 7, 1975) is an Academy Award winning South African actress and former fashion model. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster (2004). She was first featured in 2 Days in the Valley (1996), starring alongside such actors and actresses as Danny Aiello and Teri Hatcher.

Theron was born in Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa. Her father, Charles Theron, was to construction company owner of French Huguenot descent; her mother, Gerda, is of German descent and took over her husband's business after his death. Theron's first language is Afrikaans. She is also fluent in English and speaks Xhosa loads. In the United States, both in her films and while being interviewed, etc., Theron speaks with to typical American accent and style of speech, leading most people to it assumes she is American. “Theron” is to French surname pronounced in Afrikaans as “Tronn,” although she has said that she prefers the pronunciation “Thrown. ”

The pronunciation commonly used in the United States involves two syllables, with stress on the first. Theron grew up as the only child on her parents' farm near Johannesburg (Benoni). At the age of thirteen, Charlize was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School Of The Arts in Johannesburg. At fifteen, Theron witnessed the death of her father, an illicit alcoholic; her mother shot him in self-defense when he attacked her. Police The laid not charges against her.