Mila Kunis

Born: August 14 1983
Where: Kiev, Ukraine

The actress made her break-out big screen performance as an amorous hotel receptionist in the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

She played Rachael, a broken-hearted girl looking for love from Jason Segel's dumped TV composer while on holiday in Hawaii.

Kunis was best known to American audiences for her long-running role as Jackie in The 70s Show and the voice of Meg Griffin in the amimated comedy Family Guy.

The daughter of a Ukrainian chemist store manageress and a mechanical engineer, her family moved to Los Angeles when she was nine.

She attended Long Beach's Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle School and apparently learned English by watching the Price Is Right because host Bob Barker spoke slowly enough for her to understand.

While at Fairfax Senior High School she took after-school acting classes at the Beverly Hills Acting Studio, where she was spotted and signed up by a manager.

Early roles included minor parts roles in children's programmes and television commercials, appearing in a 1994 episode of Days of Our Lives as a young Hope Williams.

She made her big screen debut in 1995 in the little-seen Make A Wish, Molly and went on to appear in the TV comedy-horror remake Piranha under the "Roger Corman Presents" banner.

Subsequent appearances ranged from Baywatch to Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher as well as feature roles including the family comedies Santa With Muscles and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.

In 1998, she played the young version of Angelia Jolie's Gia in the biopic of the model Gia Marie Carangi who died of AIDS in 1986.

The same year she starred with Richard Dreyfuss in the family comedy Krippendorf's Tribe before hitting paydirt with That 70s Show.

Although actors had to be at least 18 to get the part, she truthfully claimed she would be 18 on her birthday - not specifying which birthday - and won the role. She was 14 at the time.

Back on the big screen, she played Basin the musical drama Get Over It with Kirsten Dunst and starred as Rachael in the sequel American Psycho II: All American Girl.

From 1999, Kunis has also been voicing Meg Griffin in the comedy Family Guy.

In 2007 she starred in the comedy drama After Sex with Jane Seymour and the prison-style thriller Boot Camp alongside Peter Stormare.

Recent work includes the critically-lauded Forgetting Sarah Marshall made by the same team behind Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin and also starring Russell Brand.