'American Pie' actress walked away from Hollywood fame for new life in South Africa
"American Pie" star Shannon Elizabeth ditched living in Hollywood for a move to South Africa to support a cause close to her heart.
Elizabeth spoke at the Steel City Con in Pittsburgh last Saturday, revealing she had moved to the country eight years ago to concentrate on her conservation charity, The Shannon Elizabeth Foundation, per People Magazine.
"We're building a sanctuary," she told the audience. "We have a blind black rhino we've been taking care of, and we're going to bring in more rhinos as soon as we can do an expansion."
The 51-year-old said that after her breakout role in "American Pie," she "started my charity, which was called Animal Avengers at the time. And it's been going since then, it's just morphed over the years into conservation and wildlife from dogs and cats."
"I started looking at dog and cat rescues in LA because dogs were what I knew," she told the "Life Outside Poker" podcast in July 2024, per E! News. "I realized I want to make my own organization and, over time, I just wanted to help out more animals on a bigger scale. I went on a journey of figuring out what that was and realized there was this hectic poaching crisis going on in other parts of the world."
Elizabeth founded her organization, originally called Animal Avengers, in 2001, expanding its scope from dogs and cats to wild animals in Africa, according to the foundation's website.
"In order to be hands on with her projects and to expand their scope and influence, Shannon moved to Africa in 2016 and now lives in Cape Town," the website states.
The Texas-born star has also continued her acting career, appearing in films like "Scary Movie," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," and more recently, the comedy "Plan B," and holiday film "A Home for the Holidays."
She is also in pre-production on a documentary titled "Munu-A Rhino Love Story," about titular Munu, a male black rhino in need of special care, not only because of his status as a critically endangered species, but because he is also blind and cannot forage on his own.
"It was really fun," Elizabeth said of acting. "I love acting and I love creating. So, it was a fun ride. I'm just really grateful that I had that opportunity and could create some things that people seem to like."
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