Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis Kutcher (born August 14, 1983 in Chernivtsi, Ukraine) is an American actress.
She was born in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, to a family of Russian-speaking Jews. Her family moved to the U.S. after the fall of communism. In the '90s, she appeared in small roles in TV series (Baywatch, Walker, Texas Ranger, 7th Heaven) and films (Piranha, Santa with Muscles, Gia). Her breakout role was of Jackie Burkhart on That '70s Show, which ran from 1998 to 2006. In 2001 she had a minor role in the romantic-comedy Get Over It. Kunis is now known as the voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy, replacing the original voice actress Lacey Chabert.note
She appeared in films during her run on That '70s Show, but her career only took off after the series ended. In 2008, she starred in the Romantic Comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, co-produced by Judd Apatow. In 2009, she appeared in the film adaptation of Max Payne, and Mike Judge's comedy film Extract. In 2010, she starred in the post-apocalyptic action film The Book of Eli alongside Denzel Washington and had a small role in the comedy Date Night. Her next film was Darren Aronofsky's ballet drama Black Swan, where she played Natalie Portman's rival. In 2011, she starred in the romantic comedy Friends with Benefits along with Justin Timberlake. In 2012, she appeared in Seth MacFarlane's directorial debut, Ted. In 2013, she appeared in the fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful, Sam Raimi's take on a prequel to The Wizard of Oz lore.
In 2015, she appeared in Jupiter Ascending, a Science Fiction film directed by The Wachowskis and co-starring Channing Tatum. In 2016, she starred in the comedy Bad Moms; in 2017, she appeared in its sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas. In 2018 she costarred with Kate McKinnon in The Spy Who Dumped Me. In 2019, she had a voice role in the animated film Wonder Park. In 2020, she appeared in the drama Four Good Days, alongside Glenn Close. In 2023, she reprised her role as Jackie in a guest capacity in That '90s Show.
She has also appeared in a few music videos (most notably "Jaded" for Aerosmith), voiced Tanya Winters in the video game Saints Row, and serves as a commercial spokesperson for Jim Beam bourbon.
She's married to former That '70s Show costar Ashton Kutcher and they have two children together.
She also agreed to go out with a Marine who asked her out via
YouTube.
Partial filmography:
- Santa with Muscles (1996)
- Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)
- Krippendorf's Tribe (1998)
- Gia (1998)
- That '70s Show (1998-2006)
- Family Guy (1999-present)
- Get Over It (2001)
- American Psycho 2: All American Girl (2002)
- Boot Camp (2007)
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
- Max Payne (2009)
- Extract (2009)
- The Book of Eli (2010)
- Date Night (2010)
- Black Swan (2010)
- Friends with Benefits (2011)
- Ted (2012)
- Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
- Annie (2014)
- Jupiter Ascending (2015)
- Bad Moms (2016)
- A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
- The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)
- Wonder Park (2019)
- Four Good Days (2020)
- Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)
Kunis and her work provide examples of:
- Bilingual Bonus: She lived in Ukraine until the age of 7, and speaks Russian and English equally well.
- The Cast Show Off: Downplayed. She's fluent in Russian and speaks a couple of sentences of it in Jupiter Ascending.
- Death Glare: Shown on Conan.
- Even the Girls Want Her:
- After filming Black Swan, Mila got quite a large female fanbase.
- Cameron Diaz admits to having a girl crush on her.
- Learnt English from Watching Television: She learned English by watching The Price Is Right. She thanked Bob Barker for talking slowly enough for her to understand.
- Loophole Abuse: How she got her role on That '70s Show in the first place. She told the producers she was going to be 18 "on my birthday", but didn't specify that particular birthday was four years away.
- One Head Taller: She's 5'3". She played Ashton Kutcher's (6'2") girlfriend on That '70s Show, and Jason Segel's (6'4") on Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
- Plays Great Ethnics: Even though she is a Jewish-American immigrant from the former USSR, her olive brown skin is unusual amongst Ukrainians and Russian Jews. Because of her appearance, this means that many of her roles either have an unspecified ethnicity or ethnic backgrounds very dissimilar from her actual ethnicity.
- Playing with Character Type: Oz the Great and Powerful has her start out as Theodora, a Nice Girl seemingly within her type. Then she turns into the Wicked Witch of the West!
- Real-Life Relative: In Friends with Benefits Mila's father dubs the voice of the taxi driver for the scene where she changes in the backseat. This was apparently because producers felt the original actor didn't sound New York enough.
- Really 17 Years Old: She was 14 when she first joined That '70s Show, even though she told the casting directors she was 18. They eventually figured it out but still let Mila stay as they thought she was the best fit for the role of Jackie.
- Scully Box: She often had to wear platform shoes when filming scenes with Laura Prepon on That '70s Show, due to the six-inch height difference.
- "Sesame Street" Cred: She appeared on Sesame Street in 2011 to teach kids about the word "include".
- What Could Have Been:
- She auditioned for Knocked Up.
- The break-up scene in Friends with Benefits was originally scripted to have both characters naked. Deciding that was "just wrong", they scrapped the idea.
- You Didn't Ask: All who auditioned for her role in That '70s Show were required to be at least 18 years old; she was 14 at the time, so she told the casting directors she’d be 18 on her birthday, but didn't say which one. Though they eventually figured it out, the producers still thought she was the best fit for the role.
- Your Costume Needs Work: She mentioned in an interview that she auditioned for the part of a Russian Jewish girl in the 1995 film Make a Wish, Molly, but she didn't get it, because "they didn't think I looked Russian or Jewish enough - and, mind you, I am both Russian and Jewish". Instead, she was cast as a Mexican.
