Fairuza Balk

Birthplace: Point Reyes, California
Birthday: May 21, 1974

Blue-eyed, dark-haired Fairuza Balk weathered the storms of Oz, gradually breaking free from her fresh-faced little kid persona to plunge into dark and depressing film scenarios that ultimately reveal an optimism at her core. She worked first on TV in NBC's "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" (1983) before beating out 1,200 girls to fill Dorothy's ruby slippers in Walter Murch's feature debut, "Return to Oz" (1985). Refusing to be traumatized by critics comparing her unfavorably to Judy Garland, Balk rebounded for …more

Full Biography

Credits

Actor

The Worst Witch
Mildred Hubble
Murder in the Heartland
Caril Ann Fugate
Shadow of a Doubt
Angel Harwell
Shame
Lizzie Curtis
Canned Ham: The Waterboy
Interviewee

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Career Milestones

2008
Cast opposite Frances Conroy in the comedy Humboldt County about a community of counterculture pot farmers
2006
Co-starred in Wim Wenders neo-Western Don t Come Knocking with Sam Shepard
2002
Co-starred in the drama feature Personal Velocity
2000
Had supporting role as a sort of groupie, or band-aid in Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous
1998
Acted as a neo-Nazi opposite Edward Norton in Tony Kaye s American History X