Fairuza Balk began her career as a child on the ABC special The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1983) (TV) and the Disney movie Return to Oz (1985). She attended the Bush Davies Performing Arts School in the UK for two and a half years, where she landed a series of jobs. She won a CableAce award as Best Actress for her role in the TV movie Shame (1987) and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best actress for Gas, Food Lodging (1992). She also starred in The Waterboy (1998) and American History X, for which is probably most famous.