Charlize Theron

She is mother to a son, Jackson, who she adopted in 2010.

She had been in relationships with Craig Bierko, Stephen Jenkins, and Stuart Townsend in the past.

She is involved with various charities. She created the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) in 2007 to help African youth in their fight against HIV/AIDS.

She was the only child of Gerda and Charles Theron, and grew up in South Africa. She is of mixed ancestry.

Her father, an abusive alcoholic, physically attacked her mother who shot and killed him in self defence.

She attended the Putfontein Primary School and later went to the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. She is fluent in both Afrikaans and English.

From a young age she was artistically inclined and loved to dance. She won a modeling contract as a teenager and moved to Italy with her mother. She modeled throughout Europe for a year.

Her first love was dancing and she enrolled at the Joffrey Ballet School to train as a ballet dancer. However a knee injury forced her to abandon this plan. Her mother encouraged her to pursue an acting career instead.

She went to Los Angeles to try for a career in acting when she was 19 years old. By chance she met a talent agent, John Crosby, in a Hollywood Boulevard bank. He introduced her to casting agents.

She landed her first film role in 1995. It was a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film, ‘Children of the Corn III’. She got to play her first speaking role the next year in ‘2 Days in the Valley’ in 1996.

In 1997, she starred in the mystery thriller, ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ which was based on Andrew Neiderman’s novel of the same name. The film also had Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in leading roles.

She played Candy Kendall in the film adaptation of ‘The Cider House Rules’ in 1999. The film received mainly positive reviews and won two Academy Awards.

She paired up with Keanu Reeves once again in ‘Sweet November’ (2001), a romantic drama. The story revolves around a terminally ill woman and a man who falls desperately in love with her.

She is best known for portraying the serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the crime thriller ‘Monster’. The beautiful actress ditched her glamorous looks for playing the criminal in a very convincing portrayal of the cold blooded Wuornos.