AllMovie

Ukrainian-born Mila Kunis became a breakout teen star on the FOX sitcom That '70s Show, playing spoiled daddy's girl Jackie Burkhardt. The rare 15-year-old actress to be cast as a 15-year-old character, Kunis also demonstrated her maturity by mastering accent-free English only a few years after immigrating. Her command of slang and teen vocal mannerisms won her work even when her appearance was not being utilized, as she voiced another all-American teen on FOX's animated envelope-pusher, Family Guy.

Milena Markovna Kunis was born on August 14, 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine, then moved with her parents to Los Angeles when she was seven years old. Kunis credits listening to the simple vocabulary of Bob Barker on The Price Is Right with helping her develop a speedy fluency in English. She enrolled in acting classes at the Beverly Hills Studio, where she was discovered performing in a showcase. She quickly began appearing in commercials. Kunis filled out her early resumé with such pit stops as Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), and the infamous WB ratings cellar-dweller Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (1996).

She also played a younger version of Angelina Jolie in the HBO movie Gia (1998). But it was her casting in Mark Brazill's That '70s Show that earned Kunis notice, and her performance rang true enough to earn her a voice-over role on Family Guy, taking over for Lacey Chabert as Meg Griffin during the 2000 season. As the 2000's roled along, however, Kunis would graduated to the ranks of adult actresses, beginning with her comic turn in 2008's massively successful comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, followed quickly by roles as a femme fatale in 2008's Max Payne, a seductive grifter in 2009's Extract, and a post apocalyptic heroine in 2010's Book of Eli. 2010 would also find her playing opposite Natalie Portman's Oscar winning performance in Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller The Black Swan. Kunis was roundly praised for the skill and presence she brought to the production -- not to mention her commitment to transforming her body for her character, training for months in ballet -- all further cementing her reputation as a serious actress.

Kunis would spend the next several years appearing in numerous projects, like Friends with Benefits, The Muppets, Ted, Oz the Great and Powerful and Jupiter Ascending, an epic space drama directed by the Wachowskis.