Mila Kunis biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Mila Kunis was born Milena Kunis in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi on August 14, 1983. At the age of 7, Kunis immigrated to the United States with her parents, Mark and Elvira, as well as her older brother, Michael, and eventually settled in Los Angeles.

It proved to be a rough start for the Kunis family, who arrived in their new country with just $250 in their pocket. But Kunis's parents, who both gave up professional careers to uproot themselves, were determined to make a better life for their children. Mark, a former mechanical engineer, soon found work as a cab driver, while Elvira, who had taught physics in Ukraine, wound up running a pharmacy.

"I didn't understand the culture," Kunis has said about first arriving in the United States. "I didn't understand the people. I didn't understand the language. My first sentence of my essay to get into college was like, 'Imagine being blind and deaf at age 7.' And that's kind of what it felt like moving to the States. But I got over it pretty fast."

Commercial Success

In an effort to help their young daughter meet other kids, Mark and Elvira Kunis enrolled Milena in a children's acting program at the Beverly Hills Studio. There, she met Susan Curtis, a talent manager, who took the reins of Kunis's career and soon landed the young actress in a number of high-profile TV commercials.

Other opportunities quickly followed, with spot work on a host of television programs, from NBC's The John Larroquette Show to The WB Television Network's 7th Heaven.

In 1998, Kunis (who had simplified her first name to Mila) caught her first big break when, at 14, she landed the role of Jackie Burkhart in the new Fox sitcom That '70s Show. She was cast as a whiny, self-absorbed rich girl, allowing her to perfect and showcase her comic timing. Her work on the program soon led her to Fox's Family Guy cartoon, where she supplied the voice for the character Meg Griffin.

Even while she managed a busy television career, Kunis also branched out into film. She co-starred with Kirsten Dunst in the drama Get Over It (2001). A year later, was cast alongside Macaulay Culkin in American Psycho II: All American Girl. As a result of working together, Culkin and Kunis began dating, and stayed together until 2010.

Following the end of That '70s Show in 2006, Kunis started taking on more film work. In 2008 she landed a breakout role as a hotel concierge named Rachel in the comedy hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which also starred Jason Segel and Russell Brand.