Uma Karuna Thurman was
born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1970. Uma grew
up in Amherst, Massachusetts, where her father worked at Amherst
College. She left boarding school at just 15, already determined
to become an actress. She moved to New York to follow her dream.
A breakthrough role for the tall, blonde actress came in
Dangerous Liaisons (1988). More attention came with the NC-17
rated Henry & June (1990), but it was Thurman's role in the
Quentin Tarantino classic
Pulp Fiction
(1994) that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting
Actress. Donning a short black wig to play femme fatale Mia
Wallace opposite John Travolta, Thurman earned a place in film
history.
After roles in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) and Beautiful
Girls (1996), Thurman met her future husband Ethan Hawke on the
set of the science fiction movie
Gattaca
(1997).
Thurman returned to smaller films after playing the villainess
Poison Ivy in
Batman & Robin
(1997) and starred in the drama
Tape (2001)
opposite Hawke.
A return to the mainstream spotlight came when Thurman reunited
with Quentin Tarantino for
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
(2003), a revenge flick the two had dreamed up on the set of
Pulp Fiction
(1994). She also turned up in the John Woo movie
Paycheck
(2003) that same year. The renewed attention was not altogether
welcome because Thurman was dealing with the break-up of her
marriage with Hawke at about this time. Thurman handled the
situation with grace, however, and took her surging popularity
in stride. She garnered critical acclaim for her work in
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
(2004). Thurman reunited with
Pulp Fiction
(1994) dance partner John Travolta for the Get Shorty (1995)
sequel
Be Cool
(2005) and landed a role in The Producers (2005) after Nicole
Kidman backed out of the project. She has several roles
lined up in upcoming movies for the next few years.
At
JennyStar DVD Rentals, we have 10 movies with
Uma Thurman
Charlize Theron
was born on the 7th August 1975 in Benoni, South
Africa. Her mother is of German descent and her father was
of French and Dutch ancestry; Theron is directly descended from
early Huguenot settlers, and Boer War figure Daniel Theron was
her great-grandfather's brother. Theron's first language is
Afrikaans, but she is fluent in English and speaks some Zulu.
She grew up on her parents' farm near Johannesburg.
At 16, Theron traveled
to Milan, Italy, on a one-year modeling 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.
Unable to dance, Theron flew to
Los Angeles on a one-way ticket her
mother bought her. During her early
months there, she went to a bank to cash a check her mother had
sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash
it, Theron started a shouting match with her. 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.
After eight months in L.A., she was cast in her first small
film. Her career skyrocketed in the late 1990s with box
office successes like
The Devil's Advocate
(1997) and
The Cider House Rules
(1999).
Theron starred as a
serial killer in
Monster
(2003). For this role, Theron won an Oscar for Best Actress.
She is the first African to win an Oscar for Best Actress.
The Oscar win pushed her to the list of highest-paid actresses
in
Hollywood; earning $10 million for both
her subsequent films,
North Country
and
Æon Flux.
In 2007,
Esquire named
her the Sexiest Woman Alive. In 2008 she starred with Will Smith
in
Hancock, a
movie that grossed $400 mln and in late 2008 she was asked to be
a UN Messenger of Peace by the UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-Moon.
Theron resides in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Stuart
Townsend, with whom she starred in the 2002 film
Trapped
and 2005
Æon Flux.
Theron became a naturalized citizen of the United States in
2007.
At
JennyStar DVD Rentals, we have 11 movies with
Charlize Theron