Ashton Kutcher Biography

Ashton Kutcher was born to parents Larry and Diane Kutcher, and both had jobs as factory workers at varying times. As a child growing up in Iowa, young Ashton lived on a farm with his parents, where he enjoyed the country lifestyle of an average Midwestern youngster. Ashton also had an older sister Tausha, as well as a fraternal twin brother, who was called Michael. Sadly, his brother Michael suffered from cerebral palsy.

When Ashton reached the age of 13, his family life went through a very difficult patch. His parents’ marriage broke up and they divorced soon afterwards. Things got even more stressful for Ashton, since around the same time his sickly twin brother Michael also underwent an emergency heart transplant; this was apparently prompted by a condition called cardiomyopathy, a virus-related illness that had perforated Michael’s heart muscle. Although Michael’s operation went smoothly, the seriousness of his condition had a profound effect on Ashton, who subsequently decided to enroll for a degree course in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa, with the avowed aim of one day discovering a cure for his brother’s illness. In order to finance his studies, Ashton worked at a variety of odd jobs, including carpentry and farm labouring; at one stage, he even took a job as a cereal dust sweeper at the General Mills Plant in Cedar Rapids. In addition, Ashton reacted badly to this difficult time at home and has since said that he became quite depressed.

Ashton attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa , where he excelled at sports, before his mother decided to move away from Cedar Rapids to Tiffin, Iowa, with her new partner. During Ashton’s senior year at Clear Creek-Amana High School, he reportedly broke into the high school at night with his cousin, to try and steal some money; he was caught leaving the scene and convicted of third-degree burglary. As a result, Ashton was sentenced to three years’ probation and 180 hours of community service; he is on record as saying that this difficult experience “straightened him out”, but his girlfriend at the time broke up with him as a result of his conviction.

Although he decided to enroll at the University of Iowa in order to find a cure for his brother’s illness, Ashton didn’t complete his studies. He was desperately poor at this stage of his life and often donated blood, in order to make money. Ashton was reportedly thrown out of his apartment for being too “noisy and wild”, and says of this period in his life: “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’m amazed I’m not dead.”

Ashton had already become interested in the theatre whilst still at school, when he made his debut in a 7th grade production of “The Crying Princess and the Golden Goose”. However his entry into the entertainment business proper actually came about in a rather roundabout way. One night, he was hanging out at a bar called The Airliner in Iowa City, when he was approached by a talent scout who had been impressed by his good looks and invited him to enter a competition called the “Fresh Faces of Iowa”. Ashton came first in the competition - his prize was a trip to New York in order to participate in an International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention. Ashton lost out to Josh Duhamel but then succeeded in getting signed up to the Next modeling agency in New York, where he launched his modeling career. He appeared in ads for Calvin Klein and Versace, and was even engaged for modeling jobs in Paris and Milan. Having pursued a successful career as a male model, turning his hand to acting seemed like the logical next step. So in 1997, Ashton decided to move to Los Angeles and try his luck on the audition circuit.

Happily, it didn’t take long for Ashton to receive his first “big break” - in fact, it happened almost straight away. He went for an audition for a role at NBC, and was told that he hadn’t been successful. But just as he was leaving, Ashton was called back into the studio by an executive who asked him to read for a new pilot show called “Wind On Water”. Ashton says: “I went and did a cold reading of the character and found out that I had gotten the job but I told them I had to read the script first. After reading it, I decided I didn’t want to be a cowboy surfer! My agent had told me about a series called “Teenage Wasteland” (later renamed “That ‘70s Show”) and I went in to read for that. I told them I had to know if I’d gotten the role by 3.45 pm, because I was supposed to tell NBC if I wanted the role in “Wind On Water” by 4pm!“ Ashton was cast as Michael Kelso in the television series, “That ’70s Show”, which made its TV debut in 1998. The show was highly successful and ran on until 2006. In retrospect, he’d made a very wise choice, since “Wind On Water” turned out to be a flop and was cancelled after only two episodes.

Following his runaway success on the small screen, it was only a matter of time before the Hollywood producers began calling for Ashton. He broke through into movie acting in a succession of comedy roles to begin with, such as Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), and the romantic comedy Down To You (2000). Ashton followed up this early movie success with the family film Cheaper By The Dozen, where he played a narcissistic young actor. In 2004, Ashton began to branch out into more serious roles, such as The Butterfly Effect, where he played a young man who’s struggling with various inner conflicts, and then falls in love with a girl called Kayleigh: the film received mixed reviews from the critics, but was nevertheless a substantial box office success. Ashton himself has said that he felt the film was a “fantastic metaphor for how blind people often are to the things that actually happen to them on a day to day basis.”

Off screen too, Ashton was attracting plenty of media attention, thanks to the ups and downs of his personal life. Having dated several actresses - January Jones, Ashley Scott, Monet Mazur and Brittany Murphy - in swift succession, he then began dating actress Demi Moore early in 2003, shortly after his break-up with Brittany Murphy. Ashton’s new relationship provoked great interest in the media, on account of the age difference between him and Ms Moore - fifteen years his senior. Moore also had three children by her marriage to Bruce Willis. Notwithstanding these factors, Ashton and Demi were married on 24th September 2005, in a private ceremony officiated over by a rabbi of the Kabbalah Centre. Demi and Ashton are both staunch devotees of Kabbalah, which is a mystical Jewish sect; as part of their spiritual discipline, they both toured Israel together and are keen observers of Jewish High Holy Days.

As well as being a leading Hollywood actor, Ashton has also proved to be a talented businessman and producer. In 2003, he produced and starred in his own MTV series, called Punk’d. The programme involved various hidden cameras being used to play tricks on unsuspecting celebrities and proved to be very popular. Ashton also took the role of executive producer on the series, Beauty And The Geek, which was launched in 2005. He is also set to produce a reality show based on the rap group Three 6 media, as well as yet another reality TV show called The Real Wedding Crashers.

Ashton now runs a production company called Katalyst Films, in conjunction with his partner Jason Goldberg, through which he’s obtained many of his production credits, including Punk’d. In addition to pursuing his parallel career as a TV producer, Ashton has continued to act in movies as well. One of his most recent film roles is in a movie called The Guardian (2006). In this movie, Ashton co-stars with older actor Kevin Costner as United States Coast Guard rescue swimmers. Around the same time, Ashton was completing his contract to appear in That ‘70s Show, although owing to a clash of filming schedules, he only appeared in the first four episodes of the TV series as a guest star, before returning to appear in the show’s series finale. Ashton also appeared in a movie called What Happens In Vegas…, which is released in 2008.

Very few actors succeed in creating a career path that combines not only TV and movie acting, but producing too, but Ashton has achieving great successs in all three and is to be congratulated on his achievements, even if those coveted Academy Awards have eluded him so far.