Oscar-winning actress CHARLIZE THERON (Mary Embrey)

Oscar®-winning actress CHARLIZE THERON (Mary Embrey) is continuously praised and admired for her inspiring and powerful performances. The South African native captivated audiences as female serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the independent film Monster. Theron went on to receive the Independent Spirit Award & the National Broadcast Film Critics Association as well as winning the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, San Francisco Film Critics Circle, New York Film Critics Online and Southeastern Film Critics awards, the Breakthrough Performance Award from the Nation Board of Review and the Academy Award®.
Continuing with her busy schedule Theron was next seen in the drama North Country opposite Frances McDormand and Sissy Spacek for director Niki Caro. Based on the real life story of a group of women coal miners and the hostile work environment they faced on a daily basis, North Country received great praise. Her incredible performance as Josey Aimes again garnered her nominations for a Golden Globe, SAG, Critics Choice, and an Oscar®.

Theron also captivated audiences in HBO's "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," opposite Geoffery Rush, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Emmys.

More recently, she appeared as Detective Emily Sanders in the film In the Valley of Elah, written and directed by Paul Haggis, as well as in a film she produced called Sleepwalking, with Nick Stahl and Dennis Hopper (which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival).

She will next be seen starring in another film she executive produced, titled The Burning Plane. The Burning Plane is writer Guillermo Arriaga's (21 Grams, Babel) directorial debut. She will appear in Stuart Townsend's Battle in Seattle and in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's thriller The Road, opposite Viggo Mortensen.

Moviegoers were first introduced to the seductive charm of Charlize Theron in her feature film debut, MGM's 2 Days in the Valley, with James Spader, Eric Stoltz and Jeff Daniels. She has also co-starred alongside Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate, with Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do and in Jonathan Lynn's Trial and Error. In addition, Theron starred in Woody Allen's Celebrity which she then followed with Mighty Joe Young opposite Bill Paxton.

In 1999 Theron starred in the Oscar nominated The Cider House Rules and in New Line Cinema's The Astronaut's Wife with Johnny Depp. By 2000, Theron was much in demand and tackled back-to-back roles in the following movies: Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith and Matt Damon; Fox 2000's Men of Honor with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, Jr.; John Frankenheimer's Reindeer Games with Ben Affleck; and Miramax's The Yards co-starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan and Faye Dunaway.

In 2001, Theron illuminated the screen in the Warner Bros tearjerker Sweet November alongside Keanu Reeves, as well as in Woody Allen's Curse of the Jade Scorpion co-starring Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd and David Ogden Stiers. In the fall of 2002 Theron starred opposite Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Billy Bob Thornton in Waking Up in Reno after which she starred with Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Dakota Fanning in the feature film Trapped directed by Luis Mandoki.

In 2005 Theron also took a turn in the hit HBO series Arrested Development as the mentally challenged girlfriend of her Hancock co-star, Jason Bateman.