Charlize Theron was born in South Africa in a small "dorp" named Benoni. She grew up as the only child on her family's farm. Learned the some of her 28 languages from staff on this family farm. Her parents also owned a road construction business at the same time. At the age of 6, Charlize took up ballet and began to think of going professional. She would soon take her dancing ability to higher levels, going professional in the town of Johannesburg. At 13, in Johannesburg, her parents enrolled her in a boarding school. At a young age, Charlize lost her Father. This left her mother, Gerda, in charge of the family's road-construction business. At the age of 16 she took an offer to begin modelling in Milan, Italy, offered after winning a local modeling contest. This, however, lasted for only a year when she grew tired of being seen as "somebody beautiful who should not say a word." On the last day of a modelling shoot in Manhattan, New York, she decided she would not return to Italy. (Her U.S. citizenship is still pending). She decided to return to her first love -- ballet. She began dancing with the Joffrey school in New York. After completing such popular shows as the Nutcracker Suite and Swan Lake, she suffered a knee injury that ended her ballet dancing career at the young age of 18.