Christopher Ashton Kutcher (/ˈkʊtʃər/; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, investor and former model.
Kutcher began his career as a model. He began his acting career portraying Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show, which aired for eight seasons. He made his film debut in the romantic comedy Coming Soon and became known by audiences in the comedy film Dude, Where's My Car?, which was a box office hit. In 2003, he appeared in romantic comedies Just Married and <i>My Boss's Daughter and the same year created, produced and hosted Punk'd which aired on MTV for five seasons until its revival in 2012 which has since completed its ninth season. In 2004, Kutcher starred in the lead role of the psychological film The Butterfly Effect and gained public recognition.
Subsequently, Kutcher appeared in more romantic comedies including Guess Who (2005), and A Lot Like Love (2005), his recent ones include What Happens in Vegas (2008) and No Strings Attached (2011). From 2011 to 2015, he has starred as Walden Schmidt on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, replacing Charlie Sheen. In 2013, Kutcher portrayed Steve Jobs in the biographical film Jobs.
Early life
Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Diane (Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee, and Larry M. Kutcher, a factory worker. His father is of Czech descent and his mother is of Irish, German, and Czech ancestry. Kutcher was raised in a "relatively conservative" Catholic family. He has an older sister named Tausha and a fraternal twin brother named Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Michael also has cerebral palsy and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars. Michael's cardiomyopathy caused Ashton's home life to become increasingly stressful. He has stated that he "didn't want to come home and find more bad news about" his brother, and "[I] kept myself so busy that I didn't allow myself to feel". Kutcher stated that when he was 13, he contemplated committing suicide in order to save his brother's life with a heart transplant; when he told his father he was considering jumping from a Cedar Rapids hospital balcony, his father dissuaded him from doing so shortly before doctors announced that a transplant had become available from an accident victim in another state.
Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids for his freshman year, before his family moved to Homestead, Iowa, where he attended Clear Creek Amana High School. During high school, he developed a passion for acting and appeared in school plays. However, Kutcher's home life worsened as his parents divorced when he was 16. During his senior year, he broke into his high school at midnight with his cousin in an attempt to steal money; he was arrested 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 although the experience "straightened him out", he lost his girlfriend and anticipated college scholarships, and he was ostracized at school and in his community.
Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa in August 1996, where his planned major was biochemical engineering, motivated by the desire to find a cure for his brother's heart ailment. At college, 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 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." To earn money for his tuition, Kutcher worked as a college summer hire in the cereal department for the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids, and sometimes sold his blood. During his time at UI he was approached by a model scout at a bar called "The Airliner" in Iowa City and was recruited to enter the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling competition. After placing first, he dropped out of college and won a trip to New York City to the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention. After his stay in New York City, Kutcher returned to Cedar Rapids, before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.
Career
Modeling
After participating in an IMTA competition (losing to Josh Duhamel) in 1998, Kutcher signed with Next modeling agency in New York, appeared in commercials for Calvin Klein, and models in Paris and Milan.
Acting
After his success in modeling, Kutcher moved to Los Angeles after his first audition, was cast as Michael Kelso in the television series That '70s Show, from 1998 to 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) (replaced by Josh Hartnett), he starred in several comedy films, including Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003), and Guess Who (2005). He appeared in the 2003 family film, Cheaper By The Dozen, as a self-obsessed actor. In the 2004 drama film The Butterfly Effect Kutcher, played a conflicted young man who time travels. The film received mixed to negative reviews, but was a box office success. In 2003, Kutcher produced and starred as the host in his own series, MTV's Punk'd that involved hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities. He is also an executive producer of the reality television shows Beauty and the Geek, Adventures in Hollyhood (based around the rap group Three 6 Mafia), The Real Wedding Crashers, and the game show Opportunity Knocks. Many of his production credits, including Punk'd, come through Katalyst Films, a production company he runs with partner Jason Goldberg. A 2004 interviewer described Kutcher as a "hunky young actor [who] is heading in all different directions at once", including "the hot L.A. restaurant Dolce":
"If anything, I'm a trier," says Kutcher between puffs of filtered Lucky Strikes. "I think, more than anything, it comes from the fact that my father always had several irons in the fire. Also, I don't want to fail. If something doesn't work outâ€"if That '70s Show got canceled or if I wasn't going to have a film careerâ€"I always wanted to have backup contingency plans. So I just started doing other things; and on a half-hour sitcom, you're really only working for 30 hours a week. It allows a lot of time for sitting around, which I always kind of filled with work."
Because of scheduling conflicts with the filming of The Guardian, Kutcher was forced not to renew his contract for the eighth and final season of That '70s Show, although he appeared in its first four episodes (credited as a special guest star) and returned for the series finale. Kutcher produced and starred in the 2010 action comedy, Killers, in which he played a hitman. In May 2011, Kutcher was announced as Charlie Sheen's replacement on the series Two and a Half Men. Kutcher's contract was for one year and was believed to be worth nearly $20 million. His debut as the character Walden Schmidt, entitled "Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt", was seen by 28.7 million people on September 19, 2011. The Nielsen ratings company reported that figure was more than any episode in the show's first eight seasons, when Sheen starred in it. Kutcher earned $750,000 an episode on the show. The show ended with a forty-minute series finale "Of Course He's Dead" on February 19, 2015.
Venture capitalism and investment
Beyond the entertainment world, Kutcher is also a venture capitalist and has had a highly successful career doing so. Kutcher has also successfully invested in several high technology startups. Some of his investments include Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb, Path and Fab.com. He is a co-founder of the venture capital firm A-Grade Investments. On October 29, 2013, Lenovo announced that it has hired Kutcher as product engineer. Kutcher was 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 Kutcher's role was as Creative Director. He spearheaded a marketing campaign and produced viral videos to promote this service. Kutcher also created an interactive arm of Katalyst called Katalyst Media, with his partner from Katalyst Films, Jason Goldberg. Their first site was the animated cartoon Blah Girls. Ooma revamped its sales and marketing strategy with a new management team in the summer of 2008, replacing Kutcher as their creative director. Rich Buchanan, from Sling Media, became Ooma's Chief Marketing Officer.
Restaurant
Kutcher has invested in an Italian restaurant, Dolce (other owners include Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama) and a Japanese-themed restaurant named Geisha House with locations in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York City.
Other work
In 2009, Kutcher established an international human rights organization with his then wife Demi Moore. DNA Foundation, later known as Thorn, works to address the sexual exploitation of children and the proliferation of child pornography on a global scale.
On March 23, 2011, Kutcher launched his own Twitter client with UberMedia called A.plus. While the app was initially available exclusively for desktop computers with Adobe Air installed, it eventually became available on mobile platforms, for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. In order to download on one of the 3 mobile platforms, users must first have the UberSocial client installed on their device and then proceed to the device's browser to download A.plus.
In 2013, Kutcher teamed up with Evan Beard and Kendall Dabaghi to launch A Plus (URL aplus.com), where Kutcher is currently Chairman of the Board. Initially a product discovery service, it morphed in April 2014 to a social media-driven content platform focused on upbeat stories. It was officially launched in that incarnation in January 2015. It has reported 27.5 million monthly uniques in the United States, has an Alexa rank of about 3000 (1400 in the US), and is ranked by Quantcast as a top 50 site in the US in terms of unique visitors.
Personal life
Relationships
In 2003, Kutcher began dating actress Demi Moore. Kutcher and Moore married on September 24, 2005, in a private ceremony conducted by a Rabbi of the Kabbalah Center. The wedding was attended by about 150 close friends and family of the couple, including Bruce Willis, Moore's ex-husband. On November 17, 2011, Moore announced her intention to end the marriage. After over a year of separation, Kutcher filed for divorce from Moore on December 21, 2012, in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized on November 27, 2013.
Kutcher began dating his former That '70s Show co-star Mila Kunis in April 2012. After they became engaged in February 2014, she gave birth to their daughter Wyatt Isabelle Kutcher on October 1, 2014.
Interests and beliefs
Kutcher describes himself as fiscal conservative and social liberal. He has been a student of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, for several years. His No Strings Attached co-star, Natalie Portman, stated in 2011 that Kutcher "has taught me more about Judaism than I think I have ever learned from anyone else". On trips to Israel, Kutcher visited Kabbalah centers in Tel Aviv and in Tsfat. In 2013, Kutcher remarked that "Israel is near and dear to my heart..... coming to Israel is sort of coming back to the source of creation â€" trying to get closer to that. And as a creative person, going to the source of creation is really inspiring. And this place has been really inspiring for me â€" not only on a spiritual level, but also on an artistic and creative level." On September 17, 2008, Kutcher was named the assistant coach for the freshman football team at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. However, he was unable to return in 2009 because he was filming Spread. In February 2011, Kutcher sold his Hollywood Hills home, which he originally bought in 2004. In April 2012, Kutcher became the 500th paying customer to sign up to ride Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.
Social media presence
On April 16, 2009, Kutcher became the first user of Twitter to have more than 1,000,000 followers, beating CNN in the site's "Million followers contest". However, there have been several reports that Twitter manipulated the contest's results by preventing users from "unfollowing" Kutcher or CNN.
In November 2011, Kutcher received much criticism for his tweet in response to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal calling the firing of Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno in "poor taste". Kutcher subsequently turned over management of his Twitter account to his team at the Katalyst Media company.
On March 8, 2015, Kutcher sparked a national debate regarding the lack of equal access to diaper changing facilities in men's restrooms with this Facebook post: "There are NEVER diaper changing stations in mens public restrooms. The first public men's room that I go into that has one gets a free shout out on my FB page! #BeTheChange". This post received more than 244,000 'Likes', 11,500 comments, and was reposted more than 14,000 times.
Kutcher has leveraged his social media presence, particularly on Facebook, to post and promote content published by A Plus, a social media-driven content platform and associated company that he is Chairman of.
Controversy
In April 2011, Kutcher and then-wife Demi Moore began a public service announcement campaign claiming that "Real Men" do not engage the services of child prostitutes who are the victims of human trafficking. Kutcher's claims that 100,000 to 300,000 American children were sold into sexual slavery were criticized by newspaper The Village Voice, which gave evidence refuting the claims. Kutcher may have understood a study referring to minors "at risk" for sexual exploitation as referring to children actually being prostituted. Experts estimate the true numbers to be in the hundreds, not the hundreds of thousands. Kutcher reacted to the criticism by accusing the Village Voice of promoting child prostitution and using Twitter to request that The Village Voice advertisers including American Airlines, Disney, the City of Seattle, and Domino's Pizza withdraw their advertising from publications owned by the Voice '​s parent company.
Filmography
Actor
Producer
Awards
Since he started acting, Kutcher has been nominated by the Teen Choice Awards the most, he has won awards for his romantic comedies A lot like love, What Happens in Vegas and No Strings Attached. In 1999, he was nominated by the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series by a Supporting Young Actor as Michael Kelso in That '70s Show. He has also been nominated by the Kid's Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards, People's Choice Awards and the Golden Raspberry Awards.
References
External links
- Ashton Kutcher at the Internet Movie Database
- Ashton Kutcher at AllMovie
- Ashton Kutcher at People.com
- Ashton Kutcher on Twitter
