Mila Kunis biography, net worth, ethnicity, husband, kids, age, height 2024

Mila Kunis Biography

Mila Kunis, born as Milena Markovna Kunis, is an American actress and model originally from Ukraine. She is famous for her roles in "That '70s Show" "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "Max Payne", "The Book of Eli", "Friends with Benefits", "Ted", "Oz the Great and Powerful", and "Black Swan". She is a "Saturn Award" winner and has been nominated for a "Golden Globe" and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Childhood and Early Roles

Milena Kunis, a native of Chernivtsi, Ukraine, was born on August 14, 1983. Her mother, Elvira, was a physics teacher and later became a pharmacy manager in the United States. Her father, Mark, was a mechanical engineer at "Legmash" factory and later worked as a taxi driver in the US. Mila has an older brother named Michael.

Despite a decent income by Soviet standards and no severe financial problems, her parents did not see a bright future for their children in the USSR. Moreover, as the family had Jewish roots, they suffered significantly from antisemitism, and therefore, in 1991, the Kunis family moved to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. According to Mila, her parents raised her "as Jewish as possible," something that was discouraged in the USSR.

Little Mila Kunis with her brother Michael

On her second day in America, without knowing a single word of English, Mila started attending Rosewood Elementary School. Initially, she found it very challenging, and she would come home in tears every day. "I didn't understand the culture. I didn't understand the people. I didn't understand the language," the actress later recalled.

Her self-written essay for college admission started with, 'Imagine being blind and deaf at age seven.'

To help their daughter adapt and start communicating with her peers as quickly as possible, Mark and Elvira enrolled her in a children's acting workshop at the Beverly Hills Studio. It was here that manager Susan Curtis noticed her and brought her to shoot TV commercials, including one for Barbie dolls.

Mila Kunis in a Barbie commercial (1994)

After the commercials, she received invitations to various TV shows and series, including "The John Larroquette Show," "Days of Our Lives," "7th Heaven," among others, which she had to balance with her studies at Bancroft Middle School.

Additionally, the young actress had minor roles in films like "Santa with Muscles" (1996), "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" (1997), and "Gia" (1998) with Angelina Jolie, where she played the main character as a child. It was then that her name was shortened to "Mila" for simplicity.

In 1998, when Mila was 14, she was cast in her first significant role – in the youth TV series "That '70s Show." Interestingly, while working on this show, Mila met Ashton Kutcher, who many years later became her husband.

Mila Kunis gained fame from 'That '70s Show'

Their first kiss occurred on set, although their relationship at that time was purely platonic. "I was 19, and she was about 14. Yes, I even did her chemistry homework. That on-set kiss was probably her first in real life. Imagine, our first kiss is documented on TV!" Kutcher recalled in an interview.

First kiss between Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher ('That '70s Show')

Thanks to this series, where she starred for eight seasons, she received her first Young Star Award at 16 and was awarded this honor again the following year. In addition, she was repeatedly nominated for the Teen Choice Awards.

In 1999, Mila began voicing Meg in the animated series "Family Guy". At the audition, the 15-year-old actress's voice captivated the director with its naturalness and how Mila managed to accurately reflect her character's peculiarities in her intonation.

Mila Kunis Constantly Gets Told 'Shut Up Meg'

She continued to voice her character in all subsequent seasons of the series, and for this work, she was nominated for an Annie Award in 2007. Additionally, she provided the voice for Meg Griffin in the "Family Guy" video game and the full-length animated film "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" (2005 – 2006).

People on the street often yell at me Peter Griffin's catchphrase, 'Shut up, Meg!'

Mila Kunis graduated from Fairfax High School in 2001 and enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), before transferring to Loyola Marymount University, but she didn't stay long.

Film Career

In 2001, while continuing her television career, a more mature Kunis played the friend of the main character in the romantic comedy "Get Over It," where the lead role was performed by Kirsten Dunst.

The next year, the actress played her first leading role in a movie - in the thriller "American Psycho II" (2002) with William Shatner. The film, by general opinion, was unsuccessful, and Mila herself later expressed her disappointment and protested against filming a third part: "Please, someone, stop this. Write a petition. When I filmed the second movie, I didn't even know it was going to be "American Psycho II.” It was planned as a completely different project, then it was edited, re-edited, but ... Oh, I don't know. It turned out badly."

Even Mila Kunis Didn't Like the Sequel to American Psycho

The breakthrough for Mila's film career was her participation in the romantic comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008) directed by Nicholas Stoller. The film was a box office success and received critical acclaim: "It has a lot of funny and sharp situations, and maintains the perfect balance between romance and vulgarity for a comedy," "... it's on the cutting edge of the latest and most relevant trend: a romantic comedy for guys." Although Mila's role in this film was not the lead, her work was also highly valued - the young actress was nominated for the Teen Choice Awards.

A Scene from the Comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall

In the same year, Kunis played the lead female role - gangster Mona in the thriller directed by John Moore "Max Payne," based on the eponymous video game, along with the famous actor Mark Wahlberg. Although this film received negative reviews from critics ( they considered its plot illogical and overflowing with unnecessary fight scenes) it had a good box office, and Mila again received a nomination for the Teen Choice Awards.

Nevertheless, the award once again slipped away, and the press deemed Mila "monstrously unsuitable" for this role and called the criminal boss in her performance a "dwarf with a softly purring voice." John Moore, as much as he could, defended the actress: "Yes, Mila is not the most obvious choice for this role, but she transformed so well into Mona... We needed someone who could convey the essence of the character, but with their own subtext. I think Mila did a breathtaking job."

In 2009, Mila starred in the lead role in Mike Judge's comedy "Extract," and the next year saw a more significant film for her - the post-apocalyptic drama by the Hughes brothers "The Book of Eli," where Mila's partners were Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Although critics generally rated the film as not the most outstanding, it was a big hit with the audience, and Mila's performance was unanimously called "a very strong performance": "She breathed a living spark into the heroine and endowed her with determination, showing her as an independent young woman who is not always ready to take risks." Mila was once again nominated for the Teen Choice Awards, but the award itself did not come her way again.

The same year 2010 brought the actress another interesting work - the psychological thriller by Darren Aronofsky "Black Swan," where she played a supporting role, a ballerina and rival of the main character performed by Natalie Portman. Interestingly, in real life, Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman are not rivals at all, but quite close friends.

Mila Kunis in 'Black Swan'

To convincingly transform into a ballerina, Mila had to study ballet for 5 hours every day and lose about 20 lbs of weight before the start of filming, for which the actress went on a strict diet and did cardio workouts.

For Black Swan, Mila Kunis lost almost 20 lbs

During the shooting, there were injuries: she tore a ligament in her leg and dislocated her shoulder. "I will never dance again in my life," she admitted at the end of the shooting. "I have always been convinced that consciousness prevails over matter, but until this film, I had no idea how it really works."

In Real Life, Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman are Friends

Undoubtedly, all these sacrifices and efforts were not in vain - the film was a grand success, collecting a record $329 million with a budget of $13 million, and received several prestigious awards and nominations, including five nominations for the Oscars. Mila's work did not go unnoticed either: she won the Saturn award for the best supporting female role and was also nominated for the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award.

After this serious dramatic work, the next film featuring Mila was again a romantic comedy - the film by director Will Gluck "Friends with Benefits" (2011), where the actress played the main heroine in a duet with Justin Timberlake and with the participation of Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone. The film was warmly received by the audience and critics: "The film is good for its energetic dialogues and romantic "chemistry" between the main actors, as well as the fact that the misunderstanding at the heart of the conflict looks... believable."

The following year, the actress starred in the black comedy "Ted" by director Seth MacFarlane, and her main partner in the filming was again Mark Wahlberg. At the center of the plot is a young couple and… a debauched talking teddy bear, unhappy with the appearance of a girl at his owner's.

In 2013, Mila starred in the fantasy adventure film by director Sam Raimi "Oz the Great and Powerful," a prequel to the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz." Here she played one of the lead roles, the witch Theodora. According to the plot of the film, Theodora appears on the screen in two different images, and for the transformation into one of them - the witch of the West - the actress was applied very complex makeup. The transformation process took four hours, and an hour was required to remove the makeup. According to Mila, after the end of the filming, it took her two months to restore the normal condition of the skin.

Oz: The Great And Powerful - Mila Kunis Interview

The actress herself admitted that the most difficult thing for her was to create such an image that it would not contradict the image of the witch of the West from the original film performed by actress Margaret Hamilton, but at the same time would not be perceived as secondary: "I was very nervous, working on a character who had already become an icon before me... I didn't want to spoil it, I didn't want to recreate it, I didn't want to reinterpret it. Therefore, in order not to finally break my head, I had to grow in myself the original feeling of her personality, as if she had just been given to me."

After that, Mila starred in three independent low-budget films: the thriller by Guillaume Canet "Blood Ties" (2013), the tragicomedy by Phil Robinson "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn" (2014) with the participation of Robin Williams and the melodrama by Paul Haggis "Third Person" (2014) with the participation of Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde.

Mila Kunis on the Howard Stern Show (2016)

In "box office" cinema her next work was the lead role in the space opera by Lana and Lilly Wachowski "Jupiter Ascending" (2015), played in partnership with Channing Tatum and Sean Bean. Critics received the film coolly, calling it "another disjointed narrative on a science fiction theme" and emphasizing the absurd fashion for depicting female images in science fiction and action films as implausibly strong, like "Arnold Schwarzenegger with a bust."

In 2016, the comedy "Bad Moms" directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore was released, featuring Mila Kunis alongside Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn. The film was a success, leading to the same team working on the sequel "Bad Moms Christmas."

In 2018, Mila Kunis starred in the comedy "The Spy Who Dumped Me," directed by Susanna Fogel, alongside Kate McKinnon and Sam Heughan. Part of this film was shot in Budapest.

In 2020, Mila Kunis played a dramatic role in "Four Good Days," portraying a drug addict. For this role, she had to lose weight, weighing in at 95 pounds (43 kilograms) at the start of filming. The teeth typical of methamphetamine addicts were actually a special overlay.

"I don't use drugs, but I've had many addicted friends who didn't survive, while others are still struggling with addiction. I drew on their experiences for the emotional aspect of addiction. For the physical aspect, how addicts look, I was very grateful for YouTube, anonymous addicts' meetings, and rehabilitation centers," Mila shared about her preparation for the role, which she later called the most challenging of her career.

Mila Kunis talks about addiction - Four Good Days

In 2022, Mila Kunis played the lead role in the drama "Luckiest Girl Alive." Her character is a successful journalist for a glossy magazine, but her happy life collapses after confronting her past: witnessing a school shooting during her teenage years.

Mila Kunis behind the scenes of Luckiest Girl Alive

Other Achievements

In 2007, Mila Kunis starred in the video "Funny or Die" with James Franco, a parody of the TV show "The Hills". After that, she participated in the Christmas video "Shine Your Own Star" for the Gap brand. Moreover, she often appears in music videos of famous artists - you can see her in clips of Kiss, Aerosmith, The Strokes, Joel Madden, Norah Jones, and others.

Mila Kunis Shows Her Childhood Home

The actress has repeatedly appeared on the covers of leading glossy magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and many others. In 2010, she was included in the section "Women We Love" of Esquire magazine and posed for the photo session "American Women - 2010" by singer Bryan Adams with the participation of Calvin Klein brand, the proceeds from which were donated to the AIDS Foundation.

In 2013, Kunis ranked 89th in the list of the 100 most influential celebrities and 14th in terms of income in Forbes magazine's rating. In 2017, she was placed 5th in terms of fees among Hollywood actresses - she earned $15.5 million in a year. Men's Health magazine included the actress in the list of "100 Most Attractive Women of All Times", and the popular American magazine FHM awarded her number 1 in the rating of "100 Sexiest Women in the World" for 2013.

According to Maxim magazine, Mila ranked 5th in the list of "100 Sexy People" in 2009 and 2011, and 3rd in 2012, and in 2010 she was given the honorable 2nd place in the rating of the most desired celebrities by the popular men's site AskMen.

The actress herself is quite skeptical about such ratings: "A career should be based on something more than the first place in the list of 100 girls FHM. External beauty will fade, what then will remain?"

Mila never agrees to shoot naked - for all explicit scenes with her participation, doubles were invited or computer graphics were used

In 2012, Mila Kunis became the face of the spring collection of bags from the fashion house Christian Dior, and in 2013 she began to represent the Gemfields brand, which produces precious stones. The actress took her new mission seriously and even visited the company's mine in Zambia to learn more about the brand.

Mila Kunis' Personal Life

At about 16 years old, Mila once told her father, "You know, I don't want to get married, I don't believe in marriage." Over time, Mila revised her youthful denial of marriage to a new wording: "I will get married only when gays can do it too."

In her youth, Mila did not believe in marriage

In 2002, 19-year-old Mila started dating 22-year-old actor Macaulay Culkin, who was still a very popular figure at the time. The fame of his "child" roles in "Home Alone" and "Richie Rich" had not yet faded. According to the actress, it was "impossible to just walk down the street" with Culkin because fans would start screaming at him.

Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin dated for 8 years

The couple's relationship was stable and lasted for eight years, but they were not in a hurry to get married. In January 2011, the couple broke up, after which Culkin fell into depression.

In April 2012, Mila started a relationship with actor Ashton Kutcher, her longtime co-star on "That '70s Show". They got engaged in February 2014, and their daughter Wyatt Isabelle Kutcher was born on October 1, 2014.

On July 4, 2015, Kunis and Kutcher officially got married, and on November 30, 2016, their second child, son Dimitri Portwood Kutcher, was born.

The young family did not want to expose their private life and suffered greatly from the intrusive attention of the paparazzi. 'When Wyatt was born, our backyard was swarming with drones', Mila was horrified.

The couple still values their personal space and looks very happy. When asked by a journalist from an online publication if there is anything about Kutcher that annoys her, Mila replied: "I can tell you honestly, although this will not be the answer that people would like to hear. My husband does not annoy me. He does not annoy me at all. I don't know, maybe it's still ahead, since we haven't been married for many years, you know, a lot between us is still like on the honeymoon... Everything is so wonderful and beautiful, and I have not yet reached the stage when people are annoyed... not yet."

The children in the family for a long time did not suspect that their parents are famous actors. Wyatt was convinced that her mother was a hairdresser. The legend collapsed because of the huge billboards with Mila's portraits for the promotion of the movie "A Bad Moms Christmas".

Wyatt and Dimitri are learning three languages - English, Russian, and Spanish. Ashton also had to learn Russian to communicate with Mila's relatives, as her grandparents do not speak English.

In January 2011, Kunis told the press that since childhood she has suffered from chronic iritis, which caused her to develop heterochromia: her right eye is green, and her left eye is light brown. At some point, the disease even led to blindness in one eye, but after a successful surgery, her vision was restored.

Mila Kunis has not pronounced heterochromia

Mila is a fan of the computer game "World Of Warcraft", although she does not play often and does not use the game's voice chat at all because other players recognize her by her voice.

In politics, she supports the Democratic Party of the USA and sharply criticizes Republicans for their position on certain issues, which she considers offensive – in particular, for "attacks" on women and statements on the issue of religion.

In August 2017, Mila and her husband visited the actress's homeland in the city of Chernivtsi in Ukraine. But contrary to expectations, Mila remained indifferent to the places where she lived until she was 7, and the new owner of her former house did not even let them in, so the trip brought nothing to the couple but disappointment.

In 2017, Mila Kunis and her husband went to Ukraine

Mila Kunis Now

In 2023, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher wrote a letter to the judge who was sentencing actor Danny Masterson, a former colleague of the couple on "That '70s Show". Previously, Masterson had been accused by three women of rape: in the early 2000s, he lured victims to his home, drugged their drinks, and then committed acts of sexual violence. The actor was facing 30 years in prison (and ultimately, that was exactly the sentence he received).

Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson

In their letter, Mila and Ashton noted that Danny was an honest and decent person, a true friend, and a role model, and the requested sentence shocked them. Naturally, a scandal broke out, after which the couple was forced to apologize. "We support victims. We have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future," they stated. However, the public deemed the apologies insincere, especially considering the couple's statement that their letter was intended for the judge, not for wide publication.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis Apologize for Masterson Letter

In 2024, Mila worked with Michael Keaton on a role in the comedy "Goodrich", a story about the complicated relationship between a famous gallery owner and his adult daughter.

Mila Kunis: latest news and articles

Betty Graham

I just see at the first time this movie Black Swan. What is this movie about? And a screensaver is strange, is that sure that Mila Kunis is playing there? :)

2021-04-19 10:39:49
Andrea Dixon

This beautiful woman has already two children with a handsome Kutcher. She still have time to act in the movies, good job

2021-04-13 12:10:07
Tammy Davis

I like more when Kunis is playing in comedy movies, she looks more harmonically in there, serious roles are not for her

2021-03-23 20:17:14
Mae Fitzgerald

Everywhere where Kunis is playing I like it, it`s already kind of `must watch` for me

2021-03-21 18:22:32
Margie Lynch

It`s necessary to wright one more movie - Friends with Benefits, she played a main role in there together with Timberlake.

2021-03-09 10:27:04