Ashton Kutcher extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher, September 2008
Born	Christopher Ashton Kutcher February 7, 1978 (1978-02-07) (age 32) Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Producer
Years active	1998–present
Spouse(s)	Demi Moore (2005-present)

Christopher Ashton Kutcher (pronounced /ˈkʊtʃər/; born February 7, 1978), best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American film actor, television actor, producer and former fashion model, best-known for playing Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. He created, produced and hosted Punk'd. He played lead roles in such films as Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian and What Happens in Vegas.

He is also the producer and co-creator of the supernatural TV show Room 401. and the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek. He is married to actress Demi Moore. As of April 2009^[update], Kutcher is the most followed user on the social-networking site Twitter.¹

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Ashley Ellerin 3.2 Twitter presence 4 Filmography 4.1 Actor 4.2 Producer 4.3 Video games 5 Awards 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Larry Kutcher, a worker at a General Mills factory, and Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble worker.²³⁴ He is of part Irish ancestry on his mother's side.³ Kutcher has an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids for his freshman year, before his family moved to Tiffin, Iowa, where he attended Clear Creek-Amana High School. In high school he played on the football team as a wide receiver and appeared in school plays.⁵ However, his brother suffering from cardiomyopathy caused his home life to become increasingly 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".⁶ Kutcher admitted that during adolescence, he contemplated committing suicide. At thirteen, he attempted to jump from a Cedar Rapids hospital balcony, with his father intervening in the incident.⁷ Kutcher's home life worsened as his parents divorced when he was sixteen. 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.⁵

Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa in August 1996, where he majored in biochemical engineering, motivated by the desire to find a cure for his brother's heart ailment.⁴ At college, Kutcher was kicked out of his apartment for being too "noisy" and "wild".⁸ 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."⁹ He is a member of the Delta Chi fraternity. 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 donated blood for money.¹⁰ During his time at UI he was approached by a 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. Following his stay in New York City Ashton returned to Cedar Rapids before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.⁸

Career

After participating as a modeling contestant in an IMTA competition (losing to Josh Duhamel) in 1998, 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.^{citation needed}

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),¹¹ he starred in several comedy films, including Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003), and Guess Who (2005). He briefly appeared in the 2004 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 mixed to negative reviews, but was a box-office success.⁵

In 2003, Kutcher produced and starred in his own series on MTV's Punk'd as the host. The series involved various hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities. Kutcher 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), and 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.¹²

Because of scheduling conflicts with the filming of The Guardian, Ashton was forced not to renew his contract for the eighth and final season of That 70s Show, although he did appear in the first four episodes of it (credited as a special guest star) and returned for the show's series finale.⁵

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 Ashton's role was as Creative Director. He was spearheading a marketing campaign and producing viral videos to promote this service. Kutcher has also created an interactive arm of Katalyst called Katalyst Media with his partner from Katalyst Films, Jason Goldberg. Their first site is the animated cartoon Blah Girls. Ooma revamped its sales and marketing strategy with a new management team in the summer of 2008, replacing Ashton Kutcher as their creative director. Rich Buchanan, from Sling Media, became Ooma's Chief Marketing Officer.

Kutcher is due to produce and star in the action comedy, Five Killers, in which he will play a hitman.¹³

Personal life

Kutcher 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. 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.¹⁴

Kutcher has invested in an Italian restaurant, Dolce⁵ (other owners include Masterson and Valderrama) and a Japanese-themed restaurant named Geisha House located in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Kutcher is a Chelsea F.C. fan.¹⁵

Kutcher is a self described fiscal conservative and social liberal.¹⁶

In September 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.¹⁷¹⁸

Ashley Ellerin

Kutcher's former girlfriend, Ashley Ellerin, a 22-year-old fashion model, was found stabbed to death in her Hollywood Hills apartment in February 2001.¹⁹ Hours before she was found dead, Kutcher visited her home to pick her up for the 43rd Grammy Awards, but no one answered the door. Kutcher looked inside her apartment through a back window and saw what he thought were red wine stains on the carpet, then left. Ellerin's body was found later in the day by her roommate, and after hearing of the news, Kutcher went to the police to offer any help in the investigation. In August 2008, police announced that they had traced Ellerin's murder to suspected serial killer Michael Gargiulo, a Santa Monica resident who is charged in the stabbing deaths of at least three women.¹⁹

Twitter presence

On April 16, 2009, Kutcher ("aplusk") became the first user of Twitter to have more than 1,000,000 followers,¹ beating out CNN in the "Million followers contest".²⁰²¹²² Kutcher announced via Twitter that he would be donating $100,000 to a charity to fight malaria. However, there have been several reports that Twitter manipulated the contest's results by preventing users from "unfollowing" Kutcher or CNN.²³

Filmography

Actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998–2006	That '70s Show	Michael Kelso	180 episodes
1999	Coming Soon	Louie
2000	Down to You	Jim Morrison
	Reindeer Games	College Kid
	Dude, Where's My Car?	Jesse Montgomery III
2001	Just Shoot Me!	Dean Cassidy	1 episode
	Texas Rangers	George Durham
2002	Grounded for Life	Cousin Scott	1 episode
2003–2007	Punk'd	Himself/Host
2003	Just Married	Tom Leezak
	My Boss's Daughter	Tom Stansfield
	Cheaper by the Dozen	Hank	Supporting
2004	The Butterfly Effect	Evan Treborn	Main Role
2005	Guess Who	Simon Green
	A Lot Like Love	Oliver Martin
	Robot Chicken	various voices
2006	Bobby	Fisher
	The Guardian	Jake Fischer
	Open Season	Elliot	Voice
2008	Miss Guided	Beaux	1 episode
	What Happens in Vegas...	Jack Fuller	lead role
2009	Spread	Nikki Harper
	Personal Effects	Walter Simmons	main role
2010	Valentine's Day	Reed Bennet
	Killers	Sam Finnegan

Producer

Year	Title	Episodes	Notes
2003-2007	Punk'd	69 Episodes	executive producer/host
2003	My Boss's Daughter		co-producer
2004	The Butterfly Effect		executive producer
	You've Got a Friend	8 Episodes	executive producer
2005-2008	Beauty and the Geek	48 Episodes	executive producer
2007	Adventures in Hollyhood	8 Episodes	executive producer
	Miss Guided	7 Episodes	executive producer
	Game Show in My Head		executive producer
	The Real Wedding Crashers	7 Episodes	executive producer
	Room 401	8 Episodes	executive producer
2008	Pop Fiction		executive producer
2008-2009	Opportunity Knocks		TV series (executive producer)
2009	True Beauty		executive producer
	Five Killers	pre-production
	The Beautiful Life	2 Episodes
	Spread

Video games

• Open Season Game as Elliot (Voice)

Awards

• Kids' Choice Awards
  • 2004 - Favorite Movie Actor for Just Married, My Boss's Daughter and Cheaper by the Dozen - Nominated
  • 2005 - Favorite TV Actor for That '70s Show and Punk'd - Nominated
  • 2007 - Favorite Voice in a cartoon- Nominated
  • 2004 - Favorite Television Actor for That '70s Show and Punk'd - Winner
• People's Choice Awards
  • 2010 - Favorite Web Celeb - Winner
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award
  • 2000 - Sierra Award Best Male Newcomer for Dude, Where's My Car? - Nominated
• MTV Movie Awards
  • 2001 - Breakthrough Male Performance for Dude, Where's My Car? - Nominated

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ashton Kutcher

• Ashton Kutcher at the Internet Movie Database
• Ashton Kutcher at Allmovie
• Ashton Kutcher at People.com
• Ashton Kutcher on Twitter

Persondata
NAME	Kutcher, Ashton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kutcher, Christopher Ashton
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor and producer
DATE OF BIRTH	February 7, 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH