Charlize Theron – A well known famous South African – is a renowned award winning actress as well as a former model who was born on the 7th August 1975 in Benoni which is located along the East Rand of what was then the Transvaal Province of South Africa and is now called Gauteng. She grew up there on her parents’ farm about 25 miles from Johannesburg.
Charlize Theron’s parents, Charles and Gerda were Co-0wners of a Road Construction Company as well as a working farm and the young Charlize grew up helping with farm chores as well as fostering her growing talents by having ballet lessons from the age of six. Her parents encouraged her natural artistic talents and when she was 12 she went to boarding school in Johannesburg where she studied dance.
Unfortunately her home life was not happy as her father was an alcoholic who over time became abusive physically. When Charlize was 15 her father, in a drunken rage, attacked both her and her mother and in self defense Gerda shot and killed Charles. Her mother was not charged with a crime.
At the age of 16 she entered a modeling contest in South Africa which she won and later on an international modeling contest in Italy. She travelled to the USA to continue her dream of becoming a dancer which unfortunately ended when she sustained an injury to her knee.
As her home language was Afrikaans, Charlize had to work hard to perfect her English later on when in the USA she took speech lessons to eradicate her South African Accent. Charlize Theron then decided to become an actress and moved to Los Angeles, there she was spotted by an agent and so began her career that started with some minor roles, moving on to more important movies starring with major actors which culminated in her outstanding performance in “Monster” taking the part of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos which earned her a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. (Oscar)
As of the writing of this article Charlize remains single and has adopted an African American baby. Charlize established the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) to help keep children in Africa free from HIV/AIDS.