Thursday January 7 2016 12:38 PM |
Although born in New Jersey, Embeth Davidtz moved to South Africa when she was very young. Embeth Davidtz is fluent in both English and Afrikaans, having studied classical and contemporary drama at schools in both languages. Embeth Davidtz studied at Rhodes University and she began acting with the National Theatre Company. Embeth Davidtz received good reviews there for her role as Juliet in Shakespear’s tragedy. Performing in English and Afrikaans, the bilingual actress also starred in plays, including "Stille Nag" and "A Chain of Voices," both for which she was nominated for the South African equivalent of the Tony Award.
Embeth Davidtz first film role was as the daughter of an interracial couple in the South African television movie, A Private Life (1989). Embeth Davidtz went on to win the South Africa’s equivalent of an Oscar in the psychological drama, Night of the Nineteenth.
After she moved to Los Angeles in 1991, Embeth Davidtz began with small parts in made-for-tv including two NBC projects, the made-for-television movie "'Till Death Do Us Part" and the miniseries "Deadly Matrimony." Embeth Davidtz was also seen that year in "Murder in the First," starring Christian Slater and in Laura Ziskin's short film, "Oh, What A Day," opposite Viggo Mortensen.
Embeth Davidtz has a preference for political dramas like Deadly Matrimony and Garden of Redemption, and in 1993, she starred in the ultimate political thriller as the abused Jewish maid Helen Hirsch in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. That same year Embeth Davidtz played the two-faced Sheila in Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness (1993).
In 1995, Embeth Davidtz praise for her work as young pregnant woman who causes a family crisis with her obsessive search for the lover who deserted her in Feast of July (1995). As a change of pace, Davidtz played a kind-hearted teacher in Danny DeVito's darkly comic adaptation of Roald Dahl's Mathilda (1996) and then it was back to straight political drama with Garden of Redemption (1997).
In 1998, Davidtz co-starred with Kenneth Branagh in Robert Altman's adaptation of John Grisham's The Gingerbread Man. More recently Embeth Davidtz played Natasha Glenville in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Elizabeth opposite Kevin Klein in The Emperor's Club (2002). took a three year hiatus from filmmaking, returning in 2005’s Juror. Embeth Davidtz was previously dating actor Ben Chaplin, and the two lived together in Venice, California.
Actress -
Notable TV Guest Appearances • "Scrubs" playing "Maddie" in episode: "My Tormented Mentor" (episode # 3.15) 2 March 2004