Fairuza Balk

Fairuza Balk Headshot

Actress • Musician • Artist

Birth Name: Fairuza Alejandra Balk

Birth Date: May 21, 1974

Age: 50 years old

Birth Place: Point Reyes, California

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 kid stuff as the well-meaning klutz Mildred Hubble in "The Worst Witch," a 1986 HBO movie based on the popular children's book.

Balk attracted attention in her first somewhat adult role as the virginal Cecile de Volanges promised in marriage to someone 30 years her senior in Milos Forman's "Valmont" (1989). She turned in an outstanding performance as a young rape victim in the TV film "Shame" (Lifetime, 1992) and played the blossoming younger sister of Ione Skye in Allison Anders' indie favorite "Gas Food Lodging" (1992). Balk portrayed the older daughter who inadvertently becomes head of the household when the latest scheme of her father (Harvey Keitel) turns sour in "Imaginary Crimes" (1994) and was extremely sympathetic as a self-destructive prostitute in the little-seen "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" (1995). She continued to work steadily in features of varying quality, including playing a high school student caught up in the dark side of witchcraft in the hit supernatural thriller "The Craft" (1996) and co-starred with Edward Norton and Edward Furlong in Tony Kaye's "American History X" (1998), about a white supremacist who reforms.

Credits

Paradise CityStream

Actor
Lizzie Thomas
Series
2021

Trespassers

Actor
The Visitor
Movie
2018

August Falls

Actor
Anna Ellison
Movie
2017

Hollywood Medium With Tyler HenryStream

Guest Star
Reality
2016

Battle Scars

Actor
Rifka
Movie
2015

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

Actor
Movie
2014

Beyond Clueless

Narrator
Movie
2014

Ray DonovanStream

Guest Star
Series
2013
72%

Dose of Reality

Actor
Rose
Movie
2012

Blood Into Wine

Actor
Movie
2010

The Heart Is a Drum Machine

Actor
Movie
2009

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New OrleansStream

Actor
Heidi
Movie
2009
86%

Grindstone Road

Actor
Hannah
Movie
2008

Humboldt County

Actor
Bogart
Movie
2008

Wild Tigers I Have Known

Actor
Logan's mother
Movie
2006

Masters of HorrorStream

Actor
Stacia
Series
2005

Don't Come Knocking

Actor
Amber
Movie
2005

What Is It?

Voice
Movie
2005

Deuces Wild

Actor
Annie
Movie
2002

Personal Velocity: Three Portraits

Actor
Paula
Movie
2002

Sol Goode

Actor
Movie
2001

Life in the Fast Lane

Actor
Mona
Movie
2000

Red Letters

Actor
Gretchen Van Buren
Movie
2000

Almost FamousStream

Actor
Sapphire
Movie
2000
89%

There's No Fish Food in Heaven

Actor
Mona
Movie
2000

Family Guy

Guest Voice
Connie D'Amico
Show
1999

Family GuyStream

Guest Voice
Connie D'Amico
Series
1999

American History XStream

Actor
Stacey
Movie
1998
84%

The WaterboyStream

Actor
Vicki Vallencourt
Movie
1998
33%

The Maker

Actor
Bella Sotto
Movie
1997

American Perfekt

Actor
Alice Thomas
Movie
1997

The CraftStream

Actor
Nancy Downs
Movie
1996
57%

The Island of Dr. MoreauStream

Actor
Aissa
Movie
1996
22%

The Craft

Actor
Movie
1996

La Sombra de la Vida

Actor
Movie
1995

Juegos Perversos

Actor
Angel Harwell
Movie
1995

Things to Do in Denver When You're DeadStream

Actor
Lucinda
Movie
1995
37%

Shadow of a Doubt

Actor
Angel Harwell
Movie
1995

Tollbooth

Actor
Doris
Movie
1994

Imaginary Crimes

Actor
Sonya Weiler
Movie
1994

Murder in the Heartland

Actor
Caril Ann Fugate
Movie
1993

Gas Food Lodging

Actor
Shade
Movie
1992

Shame

Actor
Lizzie Curtis
Movie
1992

Danger of Love

Actor
Lisa
Movie
1992

Intenciones Criminales

Actor
Movie
1991

Deadly Intentions... Again?

Actor
Stacey
Movie
1991

ValmontStream

Actor
Cecile
Movie
1989
48%

Amargo Despertar

Actor
Movie
1988

The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick

Actor
Celia Brzjinski
Movie
1988

The Worst Witch

Actor
Mildred Hubble
Movie
1986

DeceptionsStream

Actor
Penny Roberts
Miniseries
1985

Return to OzStream

Actor
Dorothy
Movie
1985
58%

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Actor
Beth Bradley
Movie
1983