Mila Kunis

• 1. Introduction

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  Mila Kunis was seven years old when she started school in Los Angeles without knowing a word of English. She has described how fast it all happened. "We arrived in New York on a Wednesday and by Friday morning my brother and I were at school in L.A." That abrupt beginning set the pattern for a career that rarely followed a straight line. How did a newcomer who could not follow her own classroom become a familiar face and voice on American screens? What did a teenager leave unsaid at one audition that changed her life? Why did a run of films that barely reached audiences come before the roles that brought her awards? And what did one demanding ballet thriller ask of her body? This documentary follows Kunis from the Soviet Union through sitcoms, cartoons, disappointments and acclaim.

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• 2. A Family Leaves

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  Chernivtsi, a city in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, is where Milena Markovna Kunis was born on the 14th of August 1983, into a Jewish family. Her mother, Elvira, taught physics and also ran a pharmacy. Her father, Mark, was a mechanical engineer who drove a cab after the family emigrated. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. She has an older brother named Michael.

  Russian was the language spoken at home. While appearing on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Kunis confirmed that she does not speak Ukrainian. She explained that children in her homeland were not taught it until second grade, which was exactly when she left.

  In 2011 she said her parents had "amazing jobs" and that the family was "not poor." They left, she said, because they saw "no future" for her and her brother. She has also named antisemitism in the Soviet Union as one of several reasons. Her parents raised her Jewish as far as they could, although religion was suppressed there.

  The family moved to Los Angeles in 1991 on a religious-refugee visa. Her parents gave up good jobs and degrees that did not carry over. Kunis later became a naturalized US citizen.

  On her second day in the city she was enrolled at Rosewood Elementary School. "I blocked out second grade completely," she later said. She cried every day because she understood neither the culture, the people nor the language. Years later, her college essay began with the line "Imagine being blind and deaf at age seven."

  Her later schooling bent around her work. She attended Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle School, then used an on-set tutor for most of her high school years. The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies was not flexible enough about her acting, so she moved to Fairfax High School and graduated in 2001. She briefly attended UCLA and then Loyola Marymount University.

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• 3. A Sitcom And A Cartoon

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  The Beverly Hills Studios ran the after-school acting classes where her father enrolled Kunis at age nine. There she met Susan Curtis, who later became her manager. Her very first audition won her a Barbie commercial. A commercial for the Lisa Frank product line followed shortly after.

  Television came in 1994, beginning with Days of Our Lives. A few months later she made the first of two appearances on Baywatch. She also took small parts on 7th Heaven and Walker, Texas Ranger. Film credits included Santa with Muscles and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. In Gia, a film starring Angelina Jolie, she played the young Gia Carangi.

  A disappointment came at age ten. Kunis auditioned for the role of a Russian Jewish girl who moves to North America in Make a Wish, Molly. She did not get it. She was cast instead in a secondary part, as a Mexican girl.

  The Fox sitcom That '70s Show needed a Jackie Burkhart in 1998. Every applicant had to be at least 18 years old. Kunis was 14. She told the casting directors she would be 18 but never said when. They eventually worked it out, yet the producers still believed she was the best fit. The series ran for eight seasons. She won the Young Star Award for best young actress in a comedy series in both 1999 and 2000.

  Seth MacFarlane, creator of the Fox cartoon Family Guy, was looking for a new Meg Griffin that same year. Kunis replaced Lacey Chabert in the role. Her auditions, a slight rewrite of the character and her work on That '70s Show all helped. MacFarlane called her back and told her to speak slower. He then asked her to return and enunciate more. When she insisted she had it under control, he hired her.

  MacFarlane later said Chabert had done phenomenal work. But he felt there was "something very natural about Mila." She was 15 when she started. He observed that animation often uses adults to voice teenagers, and they tend to sound forced. Kunis, he said, had "a very natural quality to Meg."

  She voiced the character again in Family Guy Video Game!, released in 2006. Kunis described Meg as "the scapegoat." In 2007 she received an Annie Award nomination for voice acting in an animated television production.

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• 4. Years Of Misfires

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  Get Over It, a 2001 film opposite Kirsten Dunst, opened Kunis's run of early movie roles. The following year she starred in American Psycho 2 with William Shatner. It was a straight-to-DVD sequel to the 2000 film American Psycho. Critics reviewed it poorly, and Kunis herself later expressed embarrassment over it.

  Tony n' Tina's Wedding, an adaptation she starred in, was shot in 2004. It did not reach theaters until 2007. Most critics disliked it, and it earned a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One reviewer at DVD Talk wrote that fans would be much better off "pretending the movie never happened in the first place."

  Moving McAllister, with Jon Heder, was filmed in 2005 and also waited until 2007 for a theatrical release. Reviews were generally poor, and it played in theaters for only two weeks. She then made After Sex alongside Zoe Saldaña, who had also appeared in Get Over It.

  Filming on Boot Camp, originally titled Straight Edge, began in October 2006. The film never played in United States theaters. It came out on DVD on the 25th of August 2009.

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• 5. Breakthrough Roles

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  Rachel Jansen, a character in the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, became Kunis's first big film success. She won the part after an unsuccessful audition for Knocked Up. Judd Apatow co-produced the film, and the role called for improvisation. Reviews were positive. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal praised her "fresh beauty and focused energy." James Berardinelli wrote that she understood comic timing. She earned a Teen Choice Award nomination, and she credits Apatow with helping her grow beyond That '70s Show.

  Max Payne, also from 2008, took her somewhere very different. Kunis played Mona Sax, an assassin, opposite Mark Wahlberg in an action film based on a video game. She trained in guns, boxing and martial arts. The film did relatively well at the box office but was poorly reviewed. Several critics called her miscast. Travis Estvold of Boise Weekly called her "horribly miscast."

  Director John Moore defended his choice. "She wasn't an obvious choice, but she just wears Mona so well," he said. The role brought her another Teen Choice Award nomination.

  Mike Judge cast her in Extract in 2009, alongside Ben Affleck and Jason Bateman. After watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he thought, "Wow, this girl's perfect." Judge was also surprised that she could quote the cult animated film Rejected. Kunis was a fan of his earlier film Office Space. She said she would do anything to be in the production, "like craft service, or, say, acting." Roger Ebert, though critical of the film, wrote that she brought her role to within "shouting distance of credibility."

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• 6. The Black Swan Year

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  Denzel Washington starred in The Book of Eli in 2010, and Kunis played the key female role. The film got mixed reviews but did well at the box office. Richard Roeper called her work a "particularly strong piece of work." Colin Covert of the Star Tribune praised her independent character, who is "not always in need of rescuing." Claudia Puig of USA Today disagreed, saying Kunis looked as if she had "dropped in from a Ray-Ban commercial." She earned another Teen Choice Award nomination. That year she also took a minor part in Date Night, with Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said her scenes with James Franco gave the film "a shot in the arm."

  Darren Aronofsky cast her in Black Swan after seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Natalie Portman, her co-star and close friend, also recommended her. Kunis played a rival ballet dancer to Portman's character. Preparing meant cardiovascular training, a 1,200-calorie daily diet and ballet classes four hours a day, seven days a week. She lost 20 pounds and regained them after filming.

  The production hurt. Kunis suffered a torn ligament and a dislocated shoulder. The film earned widespread acclaim and five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said she was "equally as lithe and dark" as Portman but with "a smirk of self-assurance." Guy Lodge of In Contention called her the "surprise package."

  Kunis won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor or actress at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. She earned a Golden Globe nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best supporting actress. At the 37th Saturn Awards, she won best supporting actress.

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• 7. Hits And Revival

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  Justin Timberlake co-starred with her in the 2011 romantic comedy Friends with Benefits. Director Will Gluck wrote the story with the two of them in mind. Critics praised their chemistry. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called Kunis "a gift that keeps giving to mainstream romantic comedy."

  Ted, in 2012, became her most commercially successful film. Seth MacFarlane directed and co-wrote it, and Kunis played the girlfriend of Wahlberg's character. When MacFarlane first conceived the project, he thought she was too young. Development dragged on for several years, and by the time it was ready he cast her anyway. She received a Critics' Choice nomination for best actress in a comedy.

  In 2013 she played Theodora, the youngest of three witches, in Oz the Great and Powerful, opposite James Franco. She dedicated the performance to Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film. Reviews were mixed. Kim Newman of Empire wrote that she "walks away with the honours." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter found her performance uncertain.

  That year also brought Blood Ties, which premiered at Cannes, and Third Person, which premiered in Toronto. Deborah Young wrote that Third Person gave Kunis "enormous room to express her talent." In October 2014 she and her partners launched Orchard Farm Productions, which has a first-look deal with ABC Studios.

  Jupiter Ascending, a 2015 science fiction film directed by the Wachowskis, co-starred Channing Tatum. Critics called it "narratively befuddled" and a "visually thrilling misfire." Bad Moms followed on the 29th of July 2016, with Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate. Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly wrote that she was both sympathetic and funny. A sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas, came out on the 1st of November 2017. The Spy Who Dumped Me, with Kate McKinnon, closed her 2018.

  Four Good Days, with Glenn Close, began filming in September 2019 and premiered at Sundance on the 25th of January 2020. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood called her "a revelation." Richard Roeper said it was "the finest work she has done."

  In 2022 she produced and starred in Luckiest Girl Alive for Netflix, based on Jessica Knoll's novel. She also made a guest appearance in That '90s Show. Goodrich, with Michael Keaton, was released on the 18th of October 2024, and Kunis was an executive producer. In 2025 she joined Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. It reached Netflix on the 12th of December 2025. In 2026 she is set to star in and produce Nightwatching, based on Tracy Sierra's debut novel.

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• 8. Fame And Private Life

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  In 2007 Kunis appeared with James Franco in a Funny or Die parody of the MTV show The Hills. It drew 2.4 million views over ten years. Director Shawn Levy later said their chemistry in that video helped persuade him to pair them in Date Night.

  Advertisers followed. Gap featured her in a Christmas campaign in December 2008, and Christian Dior signed her in 2012. In February 2013 she became global brand ambassador for Gemfields, a luxury company that produces emeralds, rubies and amethysts. She visited its mine in Zambia. Magazine lists ranked her highly, including a number 1 spot on FHM's 2013 list. In 2008 she had said that a career built on such a ranking leaves nothing once looks fade. In 2022 Time included her among the 100 most influential people in the world.

  In January 2011 she revealed that chronic iritis had left her temporarily blind in one eye. She had surgery to correct it. She also has heterochromia: her left eye is brown and her right eye is green.

  The FBI announced in September 2011 that it was investigating the hacking of her phone and email, along with those of other celebrities. Christopher Chaney of Jacksonville, Florida, later pleaded guilty to nine counts of computer hacking. That November, she attended a Marine Corps Ball in Greenville, North Carolina, as the guest of Sgt. Scott Moore, who had invited her in a YouTube video from Afghanistan.

  Kunis began dating Macaulay Culkin in 2002, and the two ended their relationship in 2011. She began dating her former That '70s Show co-star Ashton Kutcher in 2012. They got engaged in February 2014 and married in July 2015 in Oak Glen, California. They have a daughter born in October 2014 and a son born in November 2016. In 2016, while pregnant with her second child, she renovated her parents' condominium in six weeks as a surprise.

  She has also been active in charity and politics. In 2017 she announced on Conan that she would donate to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence's name. Supporters praised it, while critics launched the hashtag #BoycottJimBeam. In April 2020 she and Kutcher launched Quarantine Wine, with all proceeds going to pandemic aid. In 2022 they started a GoFundMe page to aid refugees from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

  In 2023, after Danny Masterson's conviction for rape, Kunis and Kutcher wrote letters to the judge supporting him. After the letters became public, they faced criticism and apologized in a video.

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