South African

SOUTH AFRICA: THE CITY OF ZULU DIRECTORS Today I will be covering Actors & Actresses who hail from South Africa. Embeth Davidtz: Born in Lafayette, Indiana in the USA whilst her dad was finishing his engineering degree. Her parents moved back to their native South Africa when she was only 9 years old. She is of English descent and had to learn Afrikaans to attend classes in South Africa. Her father took up teaching at Potchefstroom University. In 1983 she graduated at Glen High School in Pretoria. After school she completed her degree in Drama and English at Rhodes University in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. She performed in a few stage productions, then she moved on to the silver screen, landing roles in movies in South Africa from 1989. Embeth Davidtz moved to London in the UK in 1992 and landed her first role in an American film, Army of Darkness, which was directed by Sam Raimi (known for being the director of the Spiderman movies). She was spotted in a TV production in the US by famed director Steven Spielberg who cast her in the role as the Jewish maid in the Oscar winning movie Schindler’s List. Since then she’s landed roles in various movies, including Murder in the First, Matilda, The Gingerbread Man, Fallen, Mansfield Park, Bicentennial Man, Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Hole, Thirteen Ghosts, XXX: State of the Union and others. I think can safely say that she is an established Hollywood actress and known the world over for her performances. Definately one of my favorite actresses who hail from South Africa. I’m sure that we will see her in more roles in the future. Alice Krige: Born Alice Maud Krige in 1954 in Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa. She is well-known for her role as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact. She also reprised the role for the final episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Alice Krige left South Africa in 1976 and moved to London in the United Kingdom. She had plans were to become a clinical psychologist but turned to acting after an experience in an acting class at Rhodes University. Alice Krige attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She has also starred in various TV series including The 4400, Deadwood, Becker, Beverly Hills 90210, Murder She Wrote, Six Feet Under and others. The Borg Queen isn’t the only role she’s played on the silver screen. There have been numerous appearances in the movies, including roles in Chariots of Fire, Sleepwalkers and Reign of Fire, to name but a few. She’s also done voice overs for the Star Trek: Armada II and Gears of War 2 video games. She’s definately not a stranger in the entertainment industry, she won an award for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards in 1997 for her role as the Borg Queen. In 2004 Alice Krige was awarded an honorary Litt.D degree at Rhodes University. She is married to writer and director Paul Schoolman. In my OPINION she’s definately one of the best actresses my country has ever produced. Arnold Vosloo: Born in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa in 1962. Both his parents were actors and the family moved around a lot. He primarily grew up in Port Elizabeth, where his father owned a drive-in theatre, and in Alberton (South of Johannesburg). Arnold Vosloo started his acting career in the theatre, winning various Dalro Awards and becoming quite a regular at the State Theatre in Pretoria. He moved on to film in 1984, starring in Boetie gaan Border toe, an Afrikaans film, a comedy about the border war in South West Africa (present day Namibia). He also starred in the film’s sequel, Boetie op Manouvres in 1986. In 1990 Arnold Vosloo starred in Circles in the Forest, a film based on the book Kringe in ‘n bos by Dalene Matthee. After a spell in theatre in the US, he landed his first role in 1492: Conquest of Paradise in 1992. He followed up on this performance with the role of a henchman in Hard Target, opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in 1993. He also starred in both less successful Darkman sequels, taking over the role which Liam Neeson played in the original Darkman. Arnold Vosloo landed the title role for The Mummy in 1999 and The Mummy Returns in 2001 opposite Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. He is well known for his role Imhotep, an Egyptian high priest, in both these films. In 2006 he played the part of Colonel Coetzee in the movie Blood Diamond which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly. He also acted as Leonardo DiCaprio’s language coach for the movie. The film was partially filmed in South Africa. Besides his film career, Arnold Vosloo has also appeared in episodes of American Gothic, Nash Bridges, Alias, Charmed, 24 and Chuck on television. He’s also starring in GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra which is currently on circuit. Even though Arnold Vosloo obtained naturalist citizenship of the US, he’ll also be a South African actor to me, and one which has been present in Hollywood for a long time     Charlize Theron
Theron in February 2008
Born	7 August 1975 (age 36) Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa
Occupation	Actress, producer, director, fashion model
Years active	1995–present
Partner	Stuart Townsend (2000–2010)(separated)
Website
Official website

Charlize Theron (; born 7 August 1975) is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.

She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil’s Advocate and The Cider House Rules. She received critical acclaim and an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster, for which she became the first South African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country.

At the age of 16 Theron travelled to Milan on a one-year modelling contract, after winning a local competition. She went to New York with Pauline’s Model Management. She decided to remain after her contract ended, attending the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer. A knee injury closed this career path when Theron was 19.^[7][8]

Unable to dance, Theron flew to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket her mother bought her.^[7] During her early months there, she went to a bank to cash a cheque her mother had sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash it, Theron immediately started a shouting match with her. Afterwards, a talent agent in line behind her handed her his business card and subsequently introduced her to some casting agents and also an acting school.^[9][10] She later fired him as her manager after he kept sending her scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species.^[11] After eight months in the city, she was cast in her first film part, a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn III (1995). Her break-out role was a supporting but significant part in 2 Days in the Valley,^{[citation needed]} but larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career skyrocketed in the late 1990s with box office successes like The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998) and The Cider House Rules (1999). She was on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Vanity Fair as the “White Hot Venus”.^[12]

Theron at the premiere of North Country at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival

After appearing in a few notable films, Theron starred as the serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003). Film critic Roger Ebert called it “one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema”.^[13] For this role, Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004,^[14] as well as the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award.^[15] She is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress.^[16] The Oscar win pushed her to The Hollywood Reporter‘s 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood; earning $10,000,000 for both her subsequent films, North Country and Æon Flux, she ranked seventh, behind Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.^{[citation needed]}

On 30 September 2005 Theron received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[16] In the same year, she starred in the financially unsuccessful science fiction thriller Æon Flux.^{[citation needed]}

Theron received Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her lead performance in the drama North Country.^[14][15] Ms. magazine also honoured her for this performance with a feature article in its Fall 2005 issue.^{[citation needed]} She also received the 2005 Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female for her voiceover work in the Æon Flux video game.^[17][18]

In 2005 Theron portrayed Rita, Michael Bluth‘s (Jason Bateman) love interest, on the third season of Fox’s critically acclaimed television series Arrested Development.^[19] She also received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role of Britt Ekland in the 2004 HBO movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008 Theron was named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year.^[20] That year she also starred with Will Smith in Hancock, a film that grossed $227.9M in the U.S. and $396.4M internationally,^[21] and in late 2008 she was asked to be a UN Messenger of Peace by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.^[22]

In October 2009 Theron was cast to star in a sequel to the Mad Max films, titled Mad Max: Road Fury, which will commence filming at Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia in late 2010.^[23][24]

On 4 December 2009 Theron co-presented the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, accompanied by several other celebrities of South African origin. During rehearsals she drew an Ireland ball instead of France as a joke at the expense of FIFA, referring to Thierry Henry‘s handball controversy in the play off match between France and Ireland.^[25][26] The stunt alarmed FIFA enough for it to fear she might do it again in front of a live global audience.^[27]

As reported on Piers Morgan Tonight on 2 July 2011, Theron’s movies have earned a combine total of 800 Million dollars.^{[citation needed]}

Theron has been cast in the role of The Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Huntsman.^[28]