Hollywood “it-girl” Shannon Elizabeth ditched the red carpet for the African bush after walking away from a $3.9m property deal.
The 52-year-old actress, famous for her breakout role in American Pie, traded her Los Angeles lifestyle for a 2,300-acre (930ha) sanctuary in South Africa.
Elizabeth sold her Los Feliz home in 2014 for $US2.8 million ($A3.9 million) after originally purchasing the property in 2001 for $US1.4 million ($A1.9 million).
The Texas-born star moved to Africa in 2016 and now lives in Cape Town, according to her charity, the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation.
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Shannon Elizabeth moved to Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images
Elizabeth sold her Los Feliz home in 2014 for $US2.8 million. Picture: Google Maps
Last year, the Scary Movie actress revealed at the Steel City Con in the US that she had moved to the country to concentrate on her organisation, Fox News reports.
“We’re building a sanctuary,” she said. “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.”
Elizabeth told the Life Outside Poker podcast in July 2024 that her focus shifted from domestic pet rescues to global conservation.
“I realised I want to help out more animals on a bigger scale,” she said.
“I went on a journey of figuring out what that was and realised there was this hectic poaching crisis going on in other parts of the world.”
The move also introduced the Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back star to her husband, Simon Borchert, a fellow conservation activist from Cape Town.
Elizabeth in the 1999 film American Pie.
Elizabeth and her husband and fellow conservation activist, Simon Borchert. Picture: Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images for Toyota
The actress said the adjustment to South Africa required a “MacGyver” approach to daily life.
“One of the things that I realised was that you don’t have everything at your fingertips here,” she said.
“There isn’t an active Amazon here that you could just order whatever you want. I became like MacGyver for things.”
Elizabeth and Borchert live and work together from home to save on expenses for the foundation.
Elizabeth said while she handles fundraising and business details, her “happy place” is in the field.
“When we go to our sanctuary, we’re camping, we’re sleeping in tents, we are up with the sunrise,” she said.
As of 2026, Elizabeth’s net worth is estimated to be around $US5 million ($7.5 million).
While her early acting career provided the foundation, she bolstered her wealth as a world-class poker player.
She was previously considered one of the leading celebrity players, with more than $US250,000 ($A354,000) in live tournament winnings.
Parts of this story first appeared in Fox News and was republished with permission.
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