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Christopher Ashton Kutcher (born February 7, 1978) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Michael Kelso in the television series That '70s Show. He was the creator, executive producer, and host of the MTV celebrity prank show Punk'd. He is known for his roles in films such as Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, and The Guardian. He is married to actress Demi Moore. Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the son of factory workers Diane and Larry Kutcher. He has an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who has cerebral palsy. Michael had an emergency heart transplant at the age of thirteen that was necessitated by cardiomyopathy, a virus-induced illness that weakened and perforated his heart muscle. Kutcher's childhood was that of a rugged, outdoorsy Midwesterner, and he had various odd jobs, including carpentry, and other jobs relating to farm life. Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for about a year when his family moved to Tiffin, Iowa where he attended the Clear Creek-Amana High School. In addition to being a student, he played on the football team as wide receiver and appeared in school plays. Meanwhile, his home life was stressful. He has stated that "I didn't want to come home and find more bad news about my brother" and "kept myself so busy that I didn't allow myself to feel." Kutcher stated that as a teen, he contemplated committing suicide. At thirteen, he attempted to jump from a hospital balcony, but his father intervened at the last minute. At around this time, his parents divorced. During his senior year, he broke into the high school at night with his cousin in an attempt to steal money; he was caught leaving the scene. Kutcher was convicted of third-degree burglary and sentenced to three years' probation and 180 hours of community service. Kutcher stated that though the experience "straightened him out," he lost his girlfriend and anticipated college scholarships, and he was ostracized at school and in his community. Kutcher attended the University of Iowa, where he majored in biochemical engineering (but did not complete), motivated by the desire to find a cure for his brother's heart ailment. At the University of Iowa, Kutcher was kicked out of his apartment for being too "noisy" and "wild." Kutcher stated, "I thought I knew everything but I didn't have a clue. I was smoking a lot of weed and partying, and I woke up many mornings not knowing what I had done the night before. I played way too hard. I am amazed I am not dead." He was also a member of the Delta Chi fraternity. To make ends meet, Kutcher worked as a college summer hire in the cereal department for the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids, and sometimes donated blood for money. During his time at the University he was approached by a scout at a bar called The Airliner in Iowa City, Iowa, he was recruited to enter the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling competition, and after placing first he won a trip to New York City to the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention. After his stay in New York City Ashton returned home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. Discovered in a restaurant in Iowa City, Ashton Kutcher was encouraged to enter a modeling contest that won him a trip to New York, a move that would jump-start his career. Upon his arrival in the big city, the tall (6'3"), dark-haired Kutcher was signed to an agency and modeled in runway shows in Milan and Paris and was featured in advertisements for Calvin Klein Jeans. Acting inevitably beckoned, and he made his film debut in "Distance", an NYU student production, and appeared in a nationwide Pizza Hut TV commercial. Just a year after arriving in NYC from the tiny farm community of Homestead, Iowa, the young actor could be seen as a regular on Fox's "That '70s Show" (1998-), a role he landed after impressing producers with his fresh-faced enthusiasm. Far from his lovable but dopey character of Michael Kelso, Kutcher studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa, working as a cereal dust sweeper in the General Mills factory in Cedar Rapids to finance his education. He made the move to the big screen with a small role in "Coming Soon" (1999), starring Gaby Hoffman and Mia Farrow, followed by a turn in the its-so-stupid-its fun comedy "Dude, Where's My Car" (2000), opposite Sean William Scott, a film that has gone on the enjoy something of a cult following. He also had a role in the failed Western "Texas Rangers" (2001). In 2003, Kutcher paired up with Brittany Murphy for the feature film "Just Married." Kutcher and Murphy, who were romantically linked during publicity for the film, played a newlywed couple in the highly uneven romantic comedy. That film--which coincided with the debut of the Kutcher-created MTV hidden camera show "Punk'd" (MTV, 2003-2004), which featured Kutcher and a cast of pranksters pulling outrageous hoaxes on his young Hollywood pals--helped ignite Kutcher's celebrity status and the media was suddenly following his every move, especially after he embarked on a very high-profile--and some claimed publicity-orchestrated--May-December romance with actress Demi Moore, 15 years his senior. His next 2003 release was "My Boss' Daughter," a film shot two years earlier and pulled from the shelf for release after Kutcher's ascent. In the middling comedy, Kutcher plays a young professional who hopes to earn points with his boss by housesitting for him an becomes romantically entangled with his sexy daughter (Tara Reid). Just as Kutcher claimed to pull the plug on early "Punk'd"--partially to work on developing a new MTV series and partially to avoid irritating his Hollywood victims--he had an amusingly effective uncredited cameo in the Steve Martin-Bonnie Hunt remake of "Cheaper By the Dozen" (2003) as their daughter Piper Perabo's vain boyfriend, but he made a shaky entry in dramatic territory in the critically slammed "The Butterfly Effect" (2004) playing a college student who troubled childhood memories send him on a timeline-altering journey in an effort to improve his friends' lives. After participating as a modelling contestant in an IMTA competition (losing to Josh Duhamel) in 1997, Kutcher signed with the Next modeling agency in New York, appeared in ads for Calvin Klein, modeled in Paris and Milan, and appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial. After some success in modeling, Kutcher moved to Los Angeles and, after his first audition, was cast as Michael Kelso in the television series That '70s Show, which debuted in 1998 and ended in 2006. Kutcher was cast in a series of film roles; although he auditioned but was not cast for the role of Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor (2001), he starred in several comedy films that performed well at the box office, including Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003), and Guess Who (2005). In addition, he appeared in the family film Cheaper By The Dozen, playing a self-obsessed actor. His 2004 film The Butterfly Effect was an unusually dramatic role for Kutcher, playing a conflicted young man who fell in love with a girl called Kayleigh; the film received very mixed reviews, but was a box-office success. In 2003, Kutcher produced and starred in his own series on MTV's Punk'd. The series involves various hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities. Kutcher is also an executive producer of the reality television show Beauty and the Geek, which debuted in 2005, and will produce a reality show based around the rap group Three 6 Mafia, as well as another reality series entitled The Real Wedding Crashers. Kutcher's most recent film role is in The Guardian, a film which opened on September 29, 2006. The film co-stars Kevin Costner and Kutcher as United States Coast Guard rescue swimmers. The studio behind the film, Touchstone Pictures, initially hesitated in casting Kutcher in an action film because of his public image as a comic actor. In order to be there for filming, Ashton was forced not to renew his contract for the eighth and final season of That 70s Show, though he did appear in the first four episodes of it (credited as a special guest star) and returned for the show's series finale. Kutcher also voiced a leading character in the animated film Open Season, which opened on the same date as The Guardian. "Punk'd" returned with a new round of victims in 2005 and Kutcher re-upped for an extra season of "That 70s Show" to see the series through to the end, even as his movie career coninued to flourish. He teamed with Bernie Mac for "Guess Who?" (2005), a broad-comedy reversal of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" with Mac as a stern black father who disapproves of his daughter's engagement to Kutcher's white goofball. Within weeks of the release of that film, which failed to shake up the box office, Kutcher delivered his most mature and charming performance yet in the romantic comedy "A Lot Like Love" (2005), in which he plays an earnest young man with ambitious plans for his life who finds himself divereted every few years by his encounters with a edgy, romantically challenged aspiring actress (Amanda Peet) who, though their timing always seems to be off, just might be his soul mate. In the meantime on the small screen, as executive producer he launched another successful unscripted series on The WB: "Beauty and the Geek" (2005 - ) mismatched seven brilliant but socially awkward men with seven gorgeous but "academically challenged" women and put them through various competitive phases in hopes of coming up with a couple that was both bright and beautiful. He capped the busy year by marrying Moore in September 2005 in a traditional Kabbalah ceremony. Perhaps inspired by his own romance, shortly after the wedding it was announced Kutcher would produce the sitcom "30 Year Old Grandpa" for Fox, about a younger man who marries an older woman and becomes stepfather to her children who are almost the same age as him, and he tweaked the much publicized convivality between himself and Moore's ex Bruce Willis by having Willis guest-star on "The 70s Show." He next teamed with director Andrew Davis for the action drama "The Guardian" (lensed 2006) playing a rebellious Coast Guard enlistee who has to contend with a legendary rescue swimmer (Kevin Costner). Many of his production credits, including Punk'd, come through Katalyst Films, a production company he runs with partner Jason Goldberg. Kutcher is part of the management team for Ooma, a tech start-up launched in September 2007. Ooma is in the Voice over Internet Protocol business and Ashton's role is as Creative Director. He's spearheading a marketing campaign and producing viral videos to promote this service. Kutcher has dated actresses January Jones (from 1998 to 2001), Ashley Scott (from 2001 to 2002), Monet Mazur (2002), and Brittany Murphy (from 2002 to 2003). Following his break-up with Murphy in early 2003, Kutcher began dating Demi Moore; reports in the media frequently commented on the fifteen-year age difference between the two. Moore and Kutcher married on September 24, 2005 in a private ceremony conducted by a rabbi of the Kabbalah Centre; the wedding was attended by about 100 close friends and family of the couple, including Bruce Willis, Moore's ex-husband. Kutcher has described the marriage as an "illogical decision". He also says, "Bruce and I have a friendship of our own." Both Kutcher and Moore are followers of the Kabbalah Centre, a controversial California-based organization which alleges that it teaches Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. As part of his involvement in the religion, Kutcher has toured Israel with Demi Moore, as well as taken time off to observe traditional Jewish High Holy Days, and celebrated the Jewish holiday Purim. Kutcher also usually wears the traditional Kabbalah Red string. Kutcher is best friends with his former That '70s Show co-stars Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama, as well as actor Seann William Scott whom he co-starred with in Dude, Where's My Car. Kutcher has also invested in an Italian restaurant named Dolce (other owners include Masterson and Valderrama) and a Japanese-themed restaurant named Geisha House located in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Kutcher is a big Chicago Bears supporter. Because of their similar looks, Kutcher has also drawn comparisons to Utah Jazz swingman Kyle Korver (also from Iowa), and Korver has often fielded questions on this matter. |
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