Ashton Kutcher

The Commercial Guy Who Made It to Television

Christopher Ashton Kutcher was born in Iowa in 1978 with a twin brother and a life that had nothing to do with red carpets. He worked in a cereal factory and swept floors before a talent scout spotted him in a bar in his hometown.

In 1998, he landed the role of Michael Kelso in the series That '70s Show.

And the gamble paid off.

That character, a good-looking, somewhat clumsy guy, gave him the fame he needed to break into movies. But Kutcher wanted more than light comedies. In 2003, he premiered Punk'd on MTV, where he played harsh pranks on other Hollywood celebrities.

That same year, he starred in Just Married alongside Brittany Murphy. Critics were not kind to him, but audiences filled the theaters, which allowed him to choose more daring projects.

The risks of investing and drama

In 2004, The Butterfly Effect hit theaters. Kutcher also served as an executive producer on the film so he could have control over the final result.

That science fiction film grossed $96 million worldwide on a budget of just $13 million.

But the big change didn't come from movies.

In 2010, he co-founded A-Grade Investments with Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle. He began investing in tech companies that few people knew about at the time. He put one million dollars into Skype and got back three times that amount when Microsoft bought the company in 2011.

That same 2011, he took on the challenge of replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. He signed a contract for 700,000 dollars per episode, which kept him at the top of TV salaries for years.

She stayed on the show until 2015.

Maturity Behind the Screen

In 2013, he played Steve Jobs in the movie Jobs. To prepare for the role, he followed Apple founder's extreme diet and ended up in the hospital with pancreatic problems two days before filming began.

The movie did not perform as well as the studio had hoped.

Years later, in 2022, he appeared in Vengeance under the direction of B.J. Novak. It was a supporting role, but its emotional weight recalled his best moments in independent film.

In 2023, he returned to romantic comedy with Your Place or Mine for Netflix. He shared the spotlight with Reese Witherspoon in a production filmed mainly in locations in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

The movie had an estimated production budget of 75 million dollars.