Charlize Theron is the brunette beauty from South Africa, who has made a glorious career in Hollywood, as a movie actress and producer. Some of her highly acclaimed performances have come in films such as The Devil`s Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), Monster (2003), The Italian Job (2003), Hancock (2008), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Theron has also appeared on television for shows like `Arrested Development`, `Robot and Chicken`. In fact, she was even the co-producer for the pilot TV series `Hatfields & McCoys`. She has also been the producer for films like `The Burning Plain` and `Dark Places`.

Early Life
Charlize Theron was born on August 7, 1975, in Benoni, Traansval Province (greater Johannesburg area) of South Africa. Her parents were Charles Jacobus Theron and Gerda Jacoba Aletta. Theron comes from an Afrikaner family, with several descents including German, French, as well as Dutch. Her great-great uncle, Danie Theron, was an Afrikaner military figure (Second Boer War figure). She did a major part of her schooling from the Putfontein Primary School, but, moved on to a boarding school later. Theron continued her studies at the National School of Arts in Johannesburg.

The aspiring dancer at a young age, won a one-year modelling contract which enabled her to move to Milan, Italy and explore Europe for a while. Post completion of the modelling assignment, they moved to USA, where she received training in ballet dancing at the Joffrey Ballet School.

Personal Life
Theron had short term love affairs with actor Craig Bierko and Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins. She also had a nine-year long romantic relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, which ultimately ended in 2010. The actress is the mother of two adopted kids- son named Jackson, and daughter named August.

Movie Career
Theron made her acting debut in the 1995 horror movie Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest in which she had a silent-role. The following year, she later appeared in her first spoken role of a hitwoman with the movie 2 Days in the Valley. However, the year 1997 turned out to be a significant one in Theron`s career as she followed up her decent performance in the movie Trial and Error (1997) with a classic portrayal of a schizophrenic woman in the thriller The Devil`s Advocate (1997), alongside stars Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. Theron hasn`t looked back ever since. She continued to climb the success ladder with movies like Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Astronaut`s Wife (1999), and The Cider House Rules (1999). For her performance as Candy Kendall in The Cider House Rules, the actor won the Shooting Star: Female Award at the Bambi Awards.

She had numerous releases in the year 2000 with films like Reindeer Games, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Yards, and Men of Honor. Clearly, she was trending in Hollywood and emerging as one of the leading actresses.

In 2001, Theron reunited with Keanu Reeves in the romantic drama Sweet November in 2001. However, one of her career-best performances was as a serial killer was seen in the 2003 crime drama movie Monster. She got huge critical acclaim with a critic even terming it as `one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema`. She received due accolades in the form of 17 awards, inclusive of the highly regarded Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, etc. for Best Actress.

The success of Monster made Theron one of the highest paid actresses going around in Hollywood at that point in time. In the same year, the actress was part of the heist thriller The Italian Job (2003), alongside Mark Wahlberg. She then appeared in the biographical movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) as Britt Ekland. She delivered another strong performance in the 2005 drama North Country, for which she received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

Theron`s 2008 superhero movie Hancock, alongside actor Will Smith, proved to be her highest grosser till 2015. While she did movies like The Burning Plain (2008) and The Road (2009), her next challenging role was seen in the comedy drama Young Adult (2011), opposite Patton Oswalt. She received several award nominations, including the Golden Globe nomination as well.

Theron experimented with the role of the evil queen Ravenna in the 2012 dark fantasy film Snow White and the Huntsman. Although the critics praised her performance, the movie received mixed reviews at the box office and heavy criticism for it`s screenplay. She next appeared in the sci-fi flick Prometheus (2012), which fared exceedingly well at the box office. The versatile actress kept changing gears and appeared in a comedy movie A Million Ways to Die in the West in 2014. In 2015, she played the role of a determined rebel soldier in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, alongside Tom Hardy and Nicholas Hoult. The movie went on to be regarded by many critics as one of the greatest action movies ever made and it also won six Academy Awards.

In 2016, the actress reprised the role of Queen Ravenna in the movie The Huntsman: Winter`s War, a prequel and a sequel to the movie Snow White and the Huntsman. In the same year, she also starred in the movie The Last Face directed by Sean Penn. Her 2017 releases include the movies The Fate of the Furious, The Coldest City, and Tully. Her other releases include The Addams Family (2019), Bombshell (2019), The Old Guard (2020), F9 (2021) and The School for Good and Evil (2022).

TV Career
In 1997, Theron appeared in the television film, Hollywood Confidential, essaying the role of Sally Bowen. Three years later she hosted one of the episodes of Saturday Night Live along with Paul Simon. In subsequent years, she appeared in guest roles in TV series such as Arrested Development, and Robot Chicken. Appearing in five episodes of Arrested Development, the actress won the Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Award at the Online Film and Television Association Awards.