Charlize Theron (born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, an American Cinematheque Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actress. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, and she is one of the world’s highest-paid actresses, as of 2019.
Theron came to international prominence in the 1990s by playing the leading lady in the Hollywood films The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). In 2003, she received critical acclaim for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first South African to win an Oscar in an acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for playing a sexually abused woman seeking justice in the drama North Country (2005). Theron has since starred in several top-grossing action films, including Hancock (2008), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Prometheus (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), and Atomic Blonde (2017). She also received praise for playing troubled women in Jason Reitman’s comedy-dramas Young Adult (2011) and Tully (2018), and for portraying Megyn Kelly in the drama Bombshell (2019), receiving a third Academy Award nomination, for lead actress, for the lattermost.
Since the early 2000s, Theron has ventured into film production with her company Denver and Delilah Productions. She has produced numerous films, in many of which she had a starring role, including The Burning Plain (2008), Dark Places (2015), and Long Shot (2019). Theron became an American citizen in 2007, while retaining her South African citizenship.
Early life
Theron was born in Benoni, in the then Transvaal Province (now Gauteng Province) of South Africa, the only child of Gerda (née Maritz) and Charles Theron (27 November 1947 – 21 June 1991). Second Boer War military leader Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle. She is from an Afrikaner family, and her ancestry includes Dutch as well as French and German; her French forebears were early Huguenot settlers in South Africa. “Theron” is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as.
She grew up on her parents’ farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg. On 21 June 1991, Theron’s father, an alcoholic, threatened both teenaged Charlize and her mother while drunk, physically attacking her mother and firing a gun at both of them. Theron’s mother retrieved her own handgun, shot back and killed him. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defence, and her mother faced no charges.
Theron attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein), a period during which she has said she was not “fitting in”. At 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. Although Theron is fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans.
Personal life
In 2007, Theron became a naturalized citizen of the United States, while retaining her South African citizenship.
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Theron has two children, both adopted. She adopted Jackson in March 2012 and August in July 2015. She lives in Los Angeles. In April 2019, Theron revealed that her seven-year-old child Jackson is a transgender girl. She stated, “They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide”.
Charlize Theron Measurements Height Weight Bra Size Age

Filmography
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1995 | Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest | Eli’s follower |
1996 | 2 Days in the Valley | Helga Svelgen |
1996 | That Thing You Do! | Tina Powers |
1997 | Trial and Error | Billie Tyler |
1997 | The Devil’s Advocate | Mary Ann Lomax |
1998 | Celebrity | Supermodel |
1998 | Mighty Joe Young | Jill Young |
1999 | The Astronaut’s Wife | Jillian Armacost |
1999 | The Cider House Rules | Candy Kendall |
2000 | Reindeer Games | Ashley Mercer |
2000 | The Yards | Erica Stoltz |
2000 | Men of Honor | Gwen Sunday |
2000 | The Legend of Bagger Vance | Adele Invergordon |
2001 | Sweet November | Sara Deever |
2001 | 15 Minutes | Rose Hearn |
2001 | The Curse of the Jade Scorpion | Laura Kensington |
2002 | Trapped | Karen Jennings |
2002 | Waking Up in Reno | Candy Kirkendall |
2003 | The Italian Job | Stella Bridger |
2003 | Monster | Aileen Wuornos |
2004 | Head in the Clouds | Gilda Bessé |
2005 | North Country | Josey Aimes |
2005 | Æon Flux | Æon Flux |
2006 | East of Havana | — |
2007 | In the Valley of Elah | Det. Emily Sanders |
2007 | Battle in Seattle | Ella |
2008 | Sleepwalking | Joleen Reedy |
2008 | Hancock | Mary Embrey |
2008 | The Burning Plain | Sylvia |
2009 | The Road | Wife |
2009 | Astro Boy | Narrator |
2011 | Young Adult | Mavis Gary |
2012 | Snow White and the Huntsman | Queen Ravenna |
2012 | Prometheus | Meredith Vickers |
2014 | A Million Ways to Die in the West | Anna |
2015 | Dark Places | Libby Day |
2015 | Mad Max: Fury Road | Imperator Furiosa |
2016 | The Huntsman: Winter’s War | Queen Ravenna |
2016 | The Last Face | Wren Petersen |
2016 | Kubo and the Two Strings | Monkey |
2016 | Brain on Fire | — |
2017 | Atomic Blonde | Lorraine Broughton |
2017 | The Fate of the Furious | Cipher |
2018 | Tully | Marlo |
2018 | Gringo | Elaine Markinson |
2019 | Long Shot | Charlotte Field |
2019 | Murder Mystery | — |
2019 | The Addams Family | Morticia Addams |
2019 | Bombshell | Megyn Kelly |
2020 | Fast & Furious 9 | Cipher |
TBA | The Old Guard | Andromache of Scythia |