Mila Kunis was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, in 1983. Photo: TNS
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https://scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3170684/inside-mila-kunis-ukrainian-heritage-she-moved-los Celebrities
Inside Mila Kunis’ Ukrainian heritage: she moved to Los Angeles at age 7, broke into Hollywood, and now she and husband Ashton Kutcher are raising US$30 million for Ukrainian refugees
- Kunis’ family fled from Ukraine in 1991 to Los Angeles, where she found fame as an actress in her breakout role in That 70s Show, as well as in Black Swan and Family Guy
- She’s dined with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska, and now she’s raising donations via GoFundMe, partnering with Flexport and Airbnb
Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis is showing her support for her homeland with a US$30 million fundraiser with her husband Ashton Kutcher. Photo: AP
Countless celebrities have used their platforms to raise awareness of the crisis in Ukraine and the difficulties facing Ukrainian refugees, but actress Mila Kunis and her husband Ashton Kutcher’s plea is more personal than most.
Kunis was born Milena Markovna Kunis in 1983 in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Her family is of Jewish ancestry and her grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union was reportedly one of the reasons that the Kunis family made the decision to leave Ukraine for the United States in search of better lives when she was seven years old, resettling in Los Angeles.
Here’s what we know about Kunis’ heritage and how she’s a proud Ukrainian today …
Kunis’ family moved to Los Angeles in 1991
Kunis’ father, an engineer, and mother, a physics teacher, left their careers behind when they moved to the United States. Her father began taking odd jobs from delivering pizzas to painting houses, and her mother took up work in a pharmacy.
“My parents wanted my brother and me to have a future, and so they just dropped everything. They came with US$250,” Kunis told the Los Angeles Times in a 2008 interview.
The adjustment was difficult for young Kunis. “I cried every day. I didn’t understand the culture. I didn’t understand the people. I didn’t understand the language. My first sentence of my essay to get into college was like, ‘Imagine being blind and deaf at age seven.’ And that’s kind of what it felt like moving to the States. But I got over it pretty fast,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
She made her acting debut three years later
Mila Kunis began acting in 1994, and has since received critical acclaim for her role in films including Black Swan. Photo: Reuters
According to IMDB, Kunis started acting when she was only nine years old, when her father enrolled her in an acting class he heard about on the radio.
By the age of 11, Kunis made her first foray into the acting world, appearing in the daytime television soap Days of Our Lives. Four years later, she joined the cast of That 70s Show as Jackie Burkhart, acting alongside Topher Grace, Laura Prepon and future husband Ashton Kutcher. In 1999, Kunis began voicing Meg Griffin in Seth MacFarlane’s animated sitcom, Family Guy.
That 70s Show wrapped in 2006, but Kutcher and Kunis reconnected in 2012 and began dating. The pair became engaged two years later, marrying in 2015 and now have two children, daughter Wyatt and son Dimitri.
Kunis transitioned to film with breakout roles including Judd Apatow’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Black Swan, for which she received Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress.
Kunis remains a proud Ukrainian, and has dined with president Volodymyr Zelensky
President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska dine with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. Photo: @olenazelenska_official/Instagram
While Kunis, now 38, found fame and fortune in the United States, she has not forgotten her Ukrainian heritage. Pictures from 2019 of Kunis and Kutcher dining with the president and first lady of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky and Olena Zelenska, have begun circulating again on social media following the success of the actors’ fundraising efforts.
Kunis described herself as a “proud American” in a video released on the couple’s GoFundMe page. She continued, “I love everything that this country has done for myself and my family, but today I have never been more proud to be a Ukrainian.”
Kunis and Kutcher have raised more than US$20 million for Ukrainian refugees
Kunis and Kutcher are raising donations to aid Ukrainian refugees, and have set a fundraising goal of US$30 million. Within one week, the page has raised more than US$20 million from over 60,000 donors. The couple have pledged to personally match donations of up to US$3 million. Donations are being distributed to Flexport – easing the distribution of relief supplies to refugee sites in neighbouring regions – and Airbnb, which is providing refugees free, short-term accommodation in bordering countries.