Fairuza Balk

Born: May 21 1974
Where: Point Reeves, California, USA

Balk managed to escape Judy Garland-style typecasting after she was cast as a child as Dorothy in Walter Murch's Return to Oz.

She beat off 1,200 little girls to land the role and followed up as the well-meaning Mildred Hubble in HBO movie The Worst Witch.

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.

She played the blossoming younger sister of Ione Skye in Allison Anders' indie favorite Gas Food Lodging and the older daughter of Harvey Keitel in Imaginary Crimes.

Balk appeared as the self-destructive prostitute in the little-seen Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead and played a student toying with the black arts in The Craft.

She and co-starred with Edward Norton and Edward Furlong in Tony Kaye's American History X and also appeared opposite Adam Sandler in The Waterboy.

Other roles have included Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, Dueces Wild and the pregnant punkette in Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity.