Fairuza Balk Biography

Fairuza Balk (born May 21, 1974) is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz. Balk also made notable appearances in Valmont, The Craft, The Island of Dr. Moreau, American History X, The Waterboy, and Personal Velocity: Three Portraits.

Early life

Balk was born as Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse in Point Reyes, California. Her first name is Persian for "turquoise". Until age two, Balk lived in Cloverdale, California with her mother. They then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she began acting at age six. They moved from London to Paris for another role. They remained there for six months before returning to Vancouver. Balk moved to Los Angeles as a young woman upon signing to act in The Craft.

Fairuza's mother, Cathryn Balk, has studied, performed, and taught the ethnic and traditional dance forms of many countries such as Kurdistan, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Spain. Her father, Solomon Feldthouse, was one of the founding members of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Kaleidoscope, and is also a traveling folk musician. He was born in Pingree, Idaho and moved to Turkey at age 10, where he lived for six years and learned Greek, Turkish and Persian music. Balk has Romani Cherokee and Blackfoot ancestry through her father.

Career

Her debut role was a television movie titled The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, produced in 1983. While in London, Balk was cast by Walt Disney Productions to star as Dorothy Gale in Return to Oz, the unofficial sequel to MGM's 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz. This role led to other, minor roles, including that of Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch, and in 1988 she moved to Paris to work on Valmont with Milo? Forman. By 1989 she was back in Vancouver, where she attended high school. However, she soon decided to take correspondence courses instead and went back to Hollywood, where she gained increasing notice as an actress. In 1992 she was awarded an Independent Spirit Award as best actress for her performance in the Allison Anders film Gas Food Lodging.

In 1996, she appeared in a lead role in The Craft, in which her character formed a teenage coven with characters portrayed by Neve Campbell, Rachel True and Robin Tunney.

Since The Craft, Balk has continued to find roles, primarily dark ones. In 1996 she co-starred in The Island of Dr Moreau with Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer and David Thewlis. In 1998 she gave an intense performance as a neo-Nazi goth-punk opposite Edward Norton in his Academy Award-nominated performance in American History X, and was featured in The Waterboy, alongside Adam Sandler. Since 2000, she has appeared in over a dozen movies. She has also done voice work for animated films and video games, including Justice League and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The 2007 documentary Return To Oz: The Joy That Got Away was dedicated to her.

In 2010, Balk released the single "Stormwinds" under the artist title Armed Love Militia.

In 2011, Balk began to exhibit art in Los Angeles and New York. On August 4, 2012 she participated in the group show 'MiXTAPE' along with other notable artists Mark Ryden, Camille Rose Garcia, Jessicka Addams, & Marion Peck. Artists were asked to pick a song and create art inspired by that song. Fairuza chose the song "Nuages" by Django Reinhardt and created a 16? x 20? x 12?, mixed media sculpture. The eclectic mix of songs chosen were featured for digital download on iTunes.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Return to Oz	Dorothy Gale
1986	The Worst Witch	Mildred Hubble
1986	Discovery	Molly
1988	'	Celia Brzjinski
1989	Valmont	Cecile
1992	Gas Food Lodging	Shade
1994	Imaginary Crimes	Sonya Weiler
1994	Tollbooth	Doris
1995	Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead	Lucinda
1996	'	Nancy Downs
1996	'	Aissa
1997	American Perfekt	Alice Thomas
1997	'	Bella Sotto
1998	Life in the Fast Lane	Mona
1998	American History X	Stacey
1998	'	Vicki Vallencourt
2000	Red Letters	Gretchen Van Buren
2000	Almost Famous	Sapphire
2002	Personal Velocity: Three Portraits	Paula
2002	Deuces Wild	Annie
2005	What is it?	Screaming Snail / Insect / Monkey Girl (voice)
2005	Don't Come Knocking	Amber
2005	'	Lola
2006	Wild Tigers I Have Known	Logan's Mom
2008	Humboldt County	Bogart
2008	Grindstone Road	Hannah
2009	'	Heidi
2010	Shit Year	Message Voice
2012	Dose of Reality	Rose	Completed
2012	Thicker	Lonely	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	'	Beth Bradley	TV movie
1985	Deceptions	Penny Roberts	TV movie
1986	'	Mildred Hubble	TV movie
1987	Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story	Barbara - Age 12	TV movie
1991	Deadly Intentions... Again?	Stacey	TV movie
1992	Shame	Lizzie Curtis	TV movie
1992	'	Lisa	TV movie
1993	Murder in the Heartland	Caril Ann Fugate	TV movie
1994	ZZ Top: Breakaway	Vampire Girl	TV movie
1995	Shawdow of a Doubt	Angel Harwell	TV movie
2000	Family Guy	Connie D'Amico (voice)	Episode: "Let's Go to the Hop"
2002	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	Mercedes Cortez (voice)	Video game
2003	Justice League	Penny Dee (voice)	Episode: "Only a Dream"
2003	Lords of EverQuest	Lady T'Lak (voice)	Video game
2006	Orpheus	Karen	TV movie
2006	Masters of Horror	Stacia	Episode: "Pick Me Up"