EasyEdit tools are temporarily disabled for maintenance.
| What's going on here?
Flixster members are collaborating to create the definitive resource for Fairuza Balk information on the Internet. We're adding all the images, info, and ideas that best tell this actor's unique story. To add your knowledge of Fairuza Balk, just log in and click the EasyEdit button at the top of the wiki pages. (Click here for help.) |   Fairuza Balk mini-bio: Fairuza Balk was born as Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse in Point Reyes, California to Cathryn Balk, a belly dancer of Dutch descent, and Solomon Feldthouse, a musician. It is said that when she was born her father saw her turquoise eyes and exclaimed, "Fairuza!", meaning "turquoise." Soon after her parents divorced, Balk and her mother became world travelers. She was raised for the first part of her life in San Francisco on a commune-type ranch. They then moved to Vancouver when she was nine. At 11 they moved to London, where she attended various prestigious ballet and acting schools. It was at this time that she was selected by the Walt Disney Company to star in Return to Oz, the loose sequel to 1939's The Wizard of Oz. It was not her first role (that was a television movie called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever made in 1983), but it was the one that brought her attention as an actress . The role lead to other minor roles, and in 1988 she moved to Paris to do more work as an actress. 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. A couple of years later she cast in as lead role in The Craft, in which her character forms a teenage coven with characters portrayed by Neve Campbell, Rachel True and Robin Tunney. Her casting would seem particularly appropriate as Balk studies Wicca in real life and was part owner of a store dedicated to that religion named Panpipes Magickal Marketplace. She has since sold her interest in the store and is no longer affiliated with it. Balk has continued to find roles. She had a memorable performance as a neo-Nazi opposite Edward Norton in American History X (1998) and since 2000 she has appeared in half a dozen movies. She has also done voice work for animated films and video games, including Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
| VITAL STATS | Fairuza Balk Information:
|
| Eye color: Blue, When she was born, her father took one look at her eyes and exclaimed "Firuze!" which is Farsi for "turquoise" | | Height: 5'3" (1.60m) | | Nickname(s): Ru | | Notable feature(s): Her stunning eyes. | | Education:Fairuza's father took her several times to the Oregon Country Fair, where she would do Flamenco dancing on stage and her father played his Middle Eastern music. Soon after her parents divorced, Balk and her mother became world travelers. She was raised for the first part of her life in San Francisco on a commune-type ranch. They then moved to Vancouver when she was nine. When she was 11, they moved to London, where she attended various prestigious ballet and acting schools. | | Family: Her mother, Cathryn Balk, is of Dutch descent and worked as a belly dancer and teacher of Middle Eastern and Flamenco dancing. Her father, Solomon Feldthouse, one of the founding members of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Kaleidoscope and also a traveling folk musician, 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. | | Resides in: Hollywood, California | | Religious affiliations: Wiccan, Neopagan | | Political affiliation: | | Personal interests/hobbies: Writing poetry and fiction, playing guitar and violin, singing, and dancing. | | Charities/Causes: | | Other:Fairuza was a well-known neopagan even before she shot 1996's The Craft, and served as an uncredited technical advisor to the film. She provided some witchcraft information on set and helped design many of the sets to match real pagan rituals. From 1995 to 2001, she owned Panpipes Magickal Marketplace, billed as the nation's largest occult store, in Hollywood, California. | | |
