Mila Kunis

Milena Markovna Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is a Ukrainian-born American actress of Jewish descent, recognized for her extensive work in television and film. Born in Chernivtsi, then part of the Soviet Union, she immigrated with her family to Los Angeles at age seven in 1991, where she began acting shortly after learning English.

Kunis rose to prominence portraying Jackie Burkhart on the sitcom That '70s Show from 1998 to 2006 and providing the voice of Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy since 1999. Her transition to film included comedic roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Ted (2012), alongside a critically acclaimed dramatic performance as Lily in Black Swan (2010), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Milena Markovna Kunis was born on August 14, 1983, in Chernivtsi, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, to a Jewish family. Her parents, Mark Kunis, a cab driver, and Elvira Kunis, a former pharmacist and stylist, raised her alongside her older brother, Michael. The family maintained Jewish traditions in secret due to Soviet restrictions on religious practices, amid pervasive antisemitism in the region; her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Kunis's early childhood occurred during the waning years of the Soviet era, marked by economic stagnation and ethnic tensions for Soviet Jews, though specific personal anecdotes from this period are limited in public records.

In 1991, following the Soviet Union's dissolution and amid rising instability, Kunis's family immigrated to the United States as religious refugees, fleeing antisemitism and seeking economic opportunities unavailable in post-Soviet Ukraine. At age seven, Kunis arrived with her parents and brother, initially landing in New York before relocating to Los Angeles, California, where they settled in the West Hollywood area. The move was facilitated by visas granted on religious persecution grounds, reflecting broader patterns of Jewish emigration from the former USSR in the early 1990s.