| Biography 
"Fairuza!" her father exclaimed as he  saw  her  blue  eyes  (that's
  "turquoise"  in Persian); Fairuza Alejandra Balk had just been born,
  May  21,  1974.  Her  father  Solomon  Feldthouse  was  a  traveling
  musician,  and  her  mother  Cathryn  Balk  was  a belly dancer. Her
  parents split up soon after. Fairuza  grew  up  just  north  of  San
  Francisco  on a commune-type ranch. Her mother later found some work
  in Vancouver, it was there that Fairuza got her first acting job  in
  a  TV-movie,  at  age  9.  Two  years  later, it was off to England;
  Fairuza attended the Royal Academy of Ballet, the  Ramona  Beauchamp
  Agency  and  the  Bush  Davies Performing Arts School. Fairuza would
  work for Disney for a while; at age 11 she was chosen  from  out  of
  1,200  girls to play the part of Dorothy, starring in "Return to Oz"
  (1985). A year later she would star as, prophetically  enough,  "The
  Worst  Witch"  (a  harbinger  of her breakout role in "The Craft" 10
  years later). Fairuza and her mother remained in London until  1988,
  then  headed  to  Paris  where  the  15-year-old  Fairuza starred in
  "Valmont." The next year they returned to  Vancouver  where  Fairuza
  enrolled  in  high  school. But, despite being a movie star, Fairuza
  was shy in class; she ended up doing  correspondence  courses.  Back
  in  Hollywood, Fairuza starred in a string of movies, including "Gas
  Food Lodging" (1992) for which she received  an  Independent  Spirit
  Award  for  Best  Actress.  Following  further TV and film work, the
  beautiful Fairuza, now 5'3" and 100 lbs, achieved cult  status  with
  her  starring  role  as  a teenage witch in her signature movie "The
  Craft" (1996). This movie gave Fairuza her greatest fame;  (in  real
  life,  she  owns  a  Wiccan shop, "Panpipes Magickal" in Hollywood).
  The same year she appeared in "The Island of Dr. Moreau, " in  which
  she   did  some  belly  dancing,  and  attracted  the  attention  of
  Lancashire, England-born costar David Thewlis; it was  rumored  that
  they  were  dating.  They  did  2  more  movies  together: "American
  Perfekt" (1997)  and  "Great  Sex"  (2000).  Fairuza  was  the  love
  interest  in  the wildly popular flick "The Waterboy" (1998) and had
  a major role in "American History X" (which is  in  IMDb's  Top  250
  movie  list).  With a half dozen movies for 2000, Fairuza is much in
  demand. Her interests are: writing poetry and stories;  playing  the
  guitar;  singing (her main enjoyment); and dancing. Fairuza lives in
  Venice, CA, and has an apartment in  New  York  City.  As  befits  a
  Wiccan,  she  has  5  cats  (familiars?), named: MoMo, Scout, Oscar,
  Sweetpea Poteet Tennessee, and Mouse.
 Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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