mila kunis

Mila Kunis was born Milena Markovna Kunis on August 14, 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine, the birthplace of another familiar actress, Milla Jovovich. Her father, Mark, was a mechanical engineer, and her mother, Elvira, a physics teacher.

At the time of Mila's birth, Ukraine still formed part of the Soviet Union, and political turmoil surrounded Mila throughout her childhood years. In 1990, Ukraine gained its sovereignty, and the Kunis parents moved to Los Angeles, seeking a more stable environment in which to raise their children.

Relocation to the West brought with it abrupt changes, and the Kunis family was forced to shed their former professions (to this day Mark continues to work as the president of a cab company and Elvira as a drugstore manager). Mila and her brother were immediately enrolled in a local public school, where they began to learn English through immersion. Mila honed her conversational skills further through watching television; the game show The Price is Right proved particularly helpful to Mila, as host Bob Barker spoke slowly enough for her to consistently pick up on what he was saying.

It didn't take Mila long to become proficient at her new tongue, and at the age of nine, her father registered her in after-school acting classes at the Beverly Hills Studio. Mila took to acting quickly, and acting took to her. At one of the Studio's public showcases, Mila was approached by entertainment manager Susan Curtis, who offered to take her on. Soon thereafter, Mila made her debut national television appearances: first, on a Payless ShoeSource commercial, and then on an episode of the daytime soap Days of Our Lives.

Over the next several years leading up to 1998, Mila made appearances in a diverse collection of productions. Guest spots on television programs Baywatch, Walker, Texas Ranger and 7th Heaven were accompanied by a bit role in the 1998 Richard Dreyfuss comedy Krippendorf's Tribe. She also appeared in the 1995 made-for-TV movie Piranha, 1997's Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves and the 1996 Hulk Hogan vehicle, Santa with Muscles. The young Mila was also the focus of a Guess? clothing ad campaign.

Mila's break as an actress came in 1998, when she was cast as the young Gia in the HBO film of the same name (angelina jolie played the adult version of the character). The broadcast was well received, and Mila made the jump from bit actor to a familiar face in the entertainment industry. That same year, she auditioned for a part on a new Fox series, Teenage Wasteland. Although she was only 14 at the time (she told the producers she was 18), Mila won the part of the character Jackie, on the show that would be renamed That '70s Show.

That '70s Show went on to great success, and is currently under contract with Fox through the 2002-03 season. In spite of the recognition her work had brought her, Mila continued to attend part-time classes at her local school, Fairfax Senior High School, sitting alongside students from the nearby Inglewood and South Central L.A. neighborhoods. She graduated from Fairfax in 2001, the same year that she appeared alongside Kirsten Dunst and Sisqo in the teenie hit movie Get Over It and in the video for Aerosmith's single "Jaded."

Mila will continue her role as Jackie in That '70s Show throughout the upcoming season, and will most probably stay on board if the show's contract is extended further. She will also be starring opposite William Shatner in American Psycho II: All American Girl, playing the lead role of Rachelle Newman, a purported Patrick Bateman survivor. The film will probably be released straight to video in the summer of 2002.