Contents Synopsis Early Life Rise to Fame American Idol Comeback Attempt Early Life

Dancer, pop singer, choreographer. Paula Julie Abdul was born on June 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. The daughter of Harry Abdul, owner of a sand and gravel business, and Lorraine Abdul, a pianist, Paula grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Abdul showed a passion for dance at an early age, and began taking lessons at eight years old. In addition to her dance classes, Abdul was a conscientious student. By the time she entered Van Nuys High School, she was an honor student and cheerleader. At 15, she received a scholarship to a Palm Springs dance camp, and appeared in the 1978 musical film Junior High School, with several other Van Nuys students.

After high school, Abdul continued her studies at California State University in Northridge, where she majored in communications. But dancing remained her biggest passion, and during her freshman year at CSU she was selected from more than 700 women to become a Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader. Within three months as a Laker Girl, Abdul was selected to be the group’s head choreographer. She dropped out of CSU six months later to focus completely on her dance career. The move paid off, and soon Abdul’s choreography caught the attention of The Jackson 5, who hired her as an assistant dance director for their Victory tour.

Rise to Fame

She quickly became a choreographer for the stars, including big names such as ZZ Top, George Michael, Duran Duran and Janet Jackson. After choreographing Janet Jackson’s hit video Control, and earning an Emmy Award for her dance work on The Tracey Ullman Show, Abdul launched a recording career of her own. Thanks in no small part to talented producers and big-budget videos like Forever Your Girl, Abdul’s debut album Straight Up made her into a bona fide star. She released her second album, Spellbound, in 1991 and her third, Head Over Heels, in 1995 with moderate success. By 2000, Abdul had sold in excess of 30 million records, released two No. 1 albums and six No. 1 singles, and won a Grammy Award. That year, Abdul decided to take a break from the music industry.

American Idol

In 2002, Abdul stepped back into the spotlight as one of the three judges on the instantly popular television reality competition, American Idol, alongside producers Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell. Abdul became the show’s voice of optimism, often countering the dour and overly pessimistic Cowell. In addition to her role on Idol, Abdul also ran dance and cheerleading camps across the country.

In 2005, Abdul faced controversy when she was involved in a hit-and-run accident. According to reports, the star clipped another car but never stopped to assess the damage. She received a fine, and was sentenced to a two-year probation. That same year, reports surfaced that Abdul had engaged in a romantic relationship with a American Idol contestant Corey Clark while he was on the show.

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Contents Synopsis Early Life Commercial Success Recent Activities Early Life

American actress Amy Lou Adams was born on August 20, 1974 in Vicenza, Italy. She was the fourth of seven children born to Americans Kathryn and Richard Kent Adams, who was stationed at Caserma Ederle at the time of her birth. The Adams family, which was Mormon, relocated from one base to another repeatedly until it settled in Castle Rock, Colorado when Adams was about 8 years old.

Adams sang in the Douglas County High School choir and, aspiring to become a ballerina, trained as an apprentice at a local dance company. Later, she decided the rigidity of ballet training was ill-suited for her, and she began to pursue a career in musical theater instead.

Commercial Success

In the mid-1990s, Adams worked as a dancer at a number of different theatre and playhouses in Colorado and Minnesota. By the end of the decade, she had auditioned for and landed her first film role in the comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. Shortly thereafter, encouraged by co-star Kirstie Alley, Adams relocated to Los Angeles and auditioned for more roles. She landed one on a FOX television series, but it was later canceled.

Adams went on to appear in several small films and guest-star on TV series. She was also chosen to appear in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (2002) as Brenda Strong—a role that, according to Spielberg, should have launched Adams’s career. But it wasn’t until she starred in the 2005 film Junebug that Adams made her breakthrough: She received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for her role in the film, as well as a Special Jury Prize for her performance after Junebug premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2007, Adams landed the lead part in the fantasy musical Enchanted. Two years later, she starred as a young, aspiring cook in the popular culinary comedy about famed chef Julia Child, Julie & Julia. She starred alongside Meryl Streep in the fllm, which was directed by the late film director Nora Ephron and received wide acclaim, earning nearly $130 million at the box office.

A March 2008 MSNBC article called Adams Hollywood’s new “It Girl,” adding that she’s still uncomfortable with all of her “It-ness.” The article quoted Adams as saying, “I always equated ‘It Girls’ to, like, having a certain type of sexuality. So, for me, I don’t think like that. I don’t associate that with myself at this time. I’ve been working, which is so grounding and you don’t sort of get a sense of the outside world when you’re working.”

Recent Activities

Adams continues to star in films and perform in live theater, such as Shakespeare in The Park. She married actor Darren Le Gallo in 2008, and gave birth to their daughter two years later.

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Contents Synopsis Early Life Early Crimes Impersonations Imprisonment and Later Life Quotes

“What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today. Technology breeds crime.”

– Frank Abagnale

“Why do the Yankees always win? The other team can’t stop looking at the pinstripes.”

– Frank Abagnale

“If my forgeries looked as bad as the CBS documents, it would have been ‘Catch Me In Two Days’.”

– Frank Abagnale Early Life

Frank Abagnale Jr. was born on April 27, 1948, in Bronxville, New York. He was one of four children born to parents Frank Abagnale Sr. and Paulette Abagnale. The couple met in Algiers during World War II, while Frank Sr. was stationed in Oran. After the war, they moved to New York, where Frank started a stationery business on Madison Avenue.

Frank Jr. had a happy childhood, and was especially close to his father. When his mother decided unexpectedly to leave his father, however, the young Frank’s life was turned upside-down. Not only were his siblings devastated, but so was his father, who was still very much in love with his wife. Frank Jr. decided to live with his father after the divorce, and he often tagged along on his dad’s business dealings. It was during this time that Frank Jr. learned a lot about white collar businesses. 

Early Crimes

As a teenager, Frank Abagnale got caught up in petty crimes, including shoplifting. He soon grew tired of this practice, though, and decided to move into more sophisticated forms of burglary. Specifically, Abagnale began using his father’s gas credit card to make a tidy profit. Frank Jr. then convinced gas station attendants to give him a portion of his sale back in cash, and allowed them to pocket a portion of the proceeds. The scam fell apart, though, when Frank’s father got the credit card bill, which topped several thousand dollars.

The incident caused havoc in the family; his father’s business was struggling financially, and Frank’s scheme set his father back even further. Tired of his son’s delinquency, Frank Sr. sent his son to a private school for wayward boys. But school didn’t stick with the young Abagnale, who left home at 16 to make his own living.

Abagnale left home with $200 in his bank account and no formal education. Using his knowledge of the stationery business, Frank altered his driver’s license to make himself 10 years older than he was, and exaggerated his education. This helped him get better-paying jobs, but he still barely made ends meet.

Using his checkbook, Frank decided to quit his job and write bad checks to support himself. Before long, Abagnale had written hundreds of bad checks and had overdrawn his account by thousands of dollars. Knowing that he would eventually be caught, he decided it was time to go into hiding. 

Impersonations

Frank realized that he could cash more bad checks if he dazzled bank tellers with a new, more impressive personality. He decided pilots were highly respected professionals, so he schemed his way into getting a pilot’s uniform. Abagnale called Pan American Airlines’ headquarters and told them that he had lost his uniform while traveling.

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Contents Synopsis Profile Profile

Singer, actress. Born Aaliyah Dana Haughton, on January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, the young singer competed unsuccessfully on the television program Star Search at age 11. Later that same year, she performed with R&B legend Gladys Knight, the former wife of her uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson, at a five-night stand in Las Vegas.

In 1994, at the age of 15, Aaliyah catapulted onto the R&B charts herself with her debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number. Produced by the successful singer R. Kelly, the album quickly sold a million copies and eventually earned platinum status based largely on the success of two hit singles, “Back and Forth” and “At Your Best (You Are Love).” Later that year, tabloid reports surfaced claiming that the sultry teen singer had married the 27-year-old Kelly, but Aaliyah denied the union and the marriage was reportedly annulled.

While a student in the dance program at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts (she graduated in 1997), Aaliyah released her sophomore album, One in a Million (1996). Helmed by the well-known pop producer Timbaland and featuring rap performer Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, One in a Million portrayed the 17-year-old singer as a sultry hip-hop chanteuse with a self-confidence well beyond her years. The album garnered favorable reviews and sold two million copies.

Aaliyah gained even more recognition in 1997 when she recorded “Journey to the Past,” the Academy Award-nominated theme song to the animated feature Anastasia. She also performed the song for the Oscar telecast in 1998. Her next soundtrack effort, “Are You That Somebody?” for 1998′s Dr. Dolittle, starring Eddie Murphy, went to No. 1 on the R&B charts, was a pop crossover hit, and earned Aaliyah her first Grammy Award nomination.

In 2000, Aaliyah made her acting debut in the surprise action hit Romeo Must Die, starring opposite martial arts star Jet Li in a Romeo and Juliet-inspired story set in modern-day Los Angeles. She was also an executive producer of the movie’s soundtrack and performed the hit single “Try Again,” which netted her a second Grammy nomination as well as two MTV Music Video Awards for Best Female Video and Best Video From a Film.

Her third album, Aaliyah, was released in July 2001 and reached No. 2 on the Billboard album chart. Also in 2001, she played the title role in Queen of the Damned, based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice and set for release in 2002. She scored a major casting coup when she signed to appear in two upcoming sequels to the blockbuster sci-fi thriller The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne.

Tragically, Aaliyah was killed on August 25, 2001, when a small Cessna passenger plane carrying the singer and her video crew crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff from Abaco Island in the Bahamas, where they had just completed work on a video. The plane was headed for Miami, Florida. Aaliyah and seven other people, including the pilot, were believed to have died instantly, while a ninth passenger died later at a Bahamian hospital. Aaliyah was 22 years old at the time of her death. She is survived by her parents, Diane and Michael Haughton, and an older brother, Rashaad.

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Filmography
2006 The House Next Door Buddy Harrelson TV film
2007 The Tracy Fragments Detective
2008 Screamers: The Hunting Guy Direct-to-video
2009 The Cutting Edge: Fire & Ice Philip Seaver TV film
2011 Justice for Natalee Holloway Joran Van Der Sloot TV film
Stay with Me Travis Short film
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2004 Queer as Folk Spinning Instructor Recurring Role; 3 episodes
Degrassi: The Next Generation Doorman Episode: Ghost in the Machine: Part 2
2005 Missing Ian Harrington Episode; Paper Anniversary
Tilt Bellboy Episode: Rivered
Beautiful People Jason Recurring Role: 5 episodes
Dante’s Cove Adam Recurring Role; 2 episodes
2006-2008 Rent-a-Goalie Billy Nominated – Gemini Award Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series (2008)
Nominated – Gemini Award Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series (2007)
2007 ReGenesis Craig Riddlemeyer Recurring Role; 2 episodes
Gemini Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role Dramatic Series
2007-2010 Heartland Nick Recurring Role; 6 episodes
2007-2009 Da Kink in My Hair Matthew Recurring Role; 4 episodes
2009 Flashpoint Peter Henderson Episode: Exit Wounds
2010 Blue Mountain State Travis Recurring Role; 2 episodes
CSI: Miami Peter Truitt Episode: Sleepless in Miami
NCIS: Los Angeles Marine Gunnery Sergeant Andrew Weaver Episode: Bounty
2011 The Vampire Diaries Brady Recurring Role; 2 episodes
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation A.J. Gust Episode: 73 Seconds
90210 Jim Recurring Role; 2 episodes
Hung Jason Recurring Role; 10 episodes
2011-2012 New Girl Kyle Recurring Role; 2 episodes
2012 Private Practice Scott Becker Recurring Role; 7 episodes
2012-present Arrow Oliver Queen/Green Arrow Main Role

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EARLY LIFE
Born on October 4, 1976 in San Francisco, California, Alicia Silverstone is the daughter of Monty Silverstone, a real-estate developer, and Didi Radford, a former flight attendant. Monty Silverstone was born in England and Didi Radford was born in Scotland. Silverstone is the youngest of three children and also has a half-brother and half-sister from her father’s previous marriage.

Silverstone’s career began at the age of 6, when her father sent her picture to modeling agencies. Her first commercial was for Domino’s Pizza. She then did some modeling and other advertising work, and eventually landed a role on The Wonder Years. Silverstone attended Hollywood High School, but dropped out before graduation to pursue acting and modeling. She later earned a GED.

ACTING CAREER
In 1993, Silverstone starred in The Crush, a movie that went on to become a cult favorite. Her biggest break came in 1993, when she was cast as a sexy, rebellious teenager in a series of videos by the rock band Aerosmith. Those videos caught the attention of director Amy Heckerling, who was looking for a lead for her movie, Clueless. Released in 1995, Clueless shot Silverstone to fame and helped her receive a three-year first-look deal for her own production company, First Kiss Productions. In 1996, Silverstone was named “Best Female Performer” and “Most Desirable Female” at the MTV Movie Awards.

Silverstone’s career success has varied since Clueless. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she appeared in such films as Batman and Robin (1997), Blast From the Past (1999), Love’s Labour Lost (2000) and Beauty Shop (2005). Additionally, she landed parts of several TV series, including Miss Match (2003) and Pink Collar (2006-07), and starred in the TV movie Candles on Bay Street.

PERSONAL LIFE
Outside of her acting career, Silverstone is committed to the causes of animal welfare and environmentalism. She became a vegan in 1998, and was named PETA’s “Sexiest Female Vegetarian” in 1994.

Silverstone married rock musician Christopher Jarecki on June 11, 2005. The couple lives in an eco-friendly house in Los Angeles.

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EARLY LIFE
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986 in Yonkers, New York, to Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta. Germanotta, now known as Lady Gaga (she has attributed the inspiration for her name to the Queen song “Radio Ga-Ga”), went on to become an international pop star.

Gaga learned to play the piano by the age of 4. At the age of 11, she was accepted to the Juilliard School in Manhattan, but instead attended a private Catholic school in the city. She continued studying music and performing, writing her first piano ballad at the age of 13, and she held her first performance in a New York nightclub at the age of 14.

A few years later, Gaga was granted early admission to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts—she was one of only 20 students in the world to receive the honor of early acceptance. While there, she studied music and worked on her songwriting skills. She later withdrew from school to find creative inspiration. To make ends meet, she took three jobs, including a stint as a gogo dancer, while she honed her performance-art act.

PROFESSIONAL DEBUT
In 2005, Lady Gaga was briefly signed by Def Jam Records, but was dropped just months later. Being dropped by the label propelled the singer to perform on her own in clubs and venues on New York City’s Lower East Side. There, she collaborated with several rock bands, and began her experimentation with fashion.

In 2007, at the age of 20, Gaga began work at Interscope Records as a songwriter for other artists on the label, including Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, and The Pussycat Dolls. R&B singer Akon discovered Gaga while she was performing a burlesque show that she created, called “Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue.” Impressed, Akon signed the performer to his label under the Interscope umbrella, Kon Live. Through 2007 and 2008, Gaga wrote and recorded her debut album, The Fame. The record was received positive reviews and popular success in the United States. With the help of her own creative team, “Haus of Gaga,” the performer also began to make a name for herself internationally.

COMMERCIAL BREAKTHROUGH
Lady Gaga’s debut single, “Just Dance,” was released to radio in early 2008, and received both popular and commercial acclaim. The song was then nominated for a Grammy Award (for best dance recording) in 2008. The song lost to Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” but this didn’t keep Gaga from reaching No. 1 on the mainstream pop charts in January 2009. The second single off of The Fame, “Poker Face,” earned Gaga even more success. The song topped singles charts in almost every category, and in almost every country. Both songs were produced by Akon’s affiliate RedOne, who co-wrote most of Lady Gaga’s album.

Later in 2008, Lady Gaga opened for the newly reformed New Kids on the Block. She also collaborated with the group on the song “Big Girl Now” from New Kids on the Block’s album The Block. The following year, Gaga released an album of eight songs, The Fame Monster, followed by 2011′s Born This Way.

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EARLY YEARS
The oldest of three children, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley grew up on a farm in Devon, England. Her family raised chickens, sheep, pigs and horses among other animals. Her mother worked as a personal trainer and had her own distinct style. Rosie would often flip through the pages of Vogue and other fashion magazines with her mother.

While she covered her room with pictures of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, Huntington-Whiteley didn’t dream of being model at first. She simply aspired to their glamorous urban lifestyle. She, too, wanted to live in a big city and to escape her “pretty boring” life on the farm. At fifteen, Huntington-Whiteley got a work placement, a type of paid internship, at a modeling agency in London. There she got her first glimpse inside the modeling world, handling all sorts of odd jobs for the agency.

The following year, Huntington-Whiteley stopped by the agency for a visit. A new agent working there asked her if she would be interested in modeling. A Levi’s ad was her first job in front of the camera. With her first paycheck, Huntington-Whiteley bought a car at her parents’ insistence.

A RISING STAR
Huntington-Whiteley’s modeling career thrived. She appeared in the pages of Teen Vogue and ELLEgirl and in campaigns for such designers as Tommy Hilfiger and French Connection. At 18, she moved to New York City. There Huntington-Whiteley started to work for lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret. She appeared in its famous runaway show, walking with the likes of Gisele Bündchen and Karolina Kurkova.

Three years later, Huntington-Whiteley landed a contract with the high-end fashion house Burberry. She took over as the face of the brand from model Agyness Deyn. Huntington-Whiteley also made the cover of British Vogue for the first time in 2008. More high-profile work soon followed, including starring in a short film for the risqué lingerie line Agent Provocateur in 2009.

TRANSFORMERS AND BEYOND
News broke in 2010 that Huntington had landed a plum role in the big budget action flick Transformers: Dark of the Moon. She had been brought to replace Megan Fox as Shia LaBeouf’s love interest in this third installment of director Michael Bay’s film franchise. Handling some of her own stunts, Huntington-Whiteley got numerous bumps and bruises while making the physically demanding movie. She also had to learn to run in heels to escape from all of the on-screen calamity.

Even before the film’s release, Huntington-Whiteley enjoyed a new-found celebrity status. The full-lipped model earned two unique honors in the spring of 2011. She topped Maxim magazine’s Hot 100 list and the readers of Britain’s FHM magazine voted her in as number one in their list of the world’s 100 most beautiful women.

While largely loathed by critics, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was a huge box office hit during the summer of 2011. The film raked in more than $1 billion worldwide. Huntington-Whiteley was on the receiving end of some less-than-kind reviews for her acting debut as well. One CNN reporter said that Huntington-Whitely made “Megan Fox look like Meryl Streep.”

Returning to modeling, Huntington-Whiteley helped Burberry launched their new fragrance Body in the fall of 2011. She also appeared in a campaign for the British retailer Marks & Spencer with actor Ryan Reynolds around this time.

PERSONAL LIFE
Huntington-Whiteley is currently dating action film star Jason Statham. In the past, she has been romantically linked to actor Olivier Martinez. She also dated Tyrone Wood, son of Rolling Stones’ member Ronnie Wood, from 2007 to 2009.

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Nickname
Jay

Height
5′ 10″ (1.78 m)

Mini Biography
Jason Statham has done quite a lot in a short time. He has been a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman and finally of course, actor. He got the audition for his debut role as Bacon in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) through French Connection, for whom he was modeling. They became a major investor in the film and introduced Jason to Guy Ritchie, who invited him to audition for a part in the film by challenging him to impersonate an illegal street vendor and convince him to purchase fake jewelery. Jason must have been doing something right because after the success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) he teamed up again with Guy Ritchie for Snatch. (2000), with co-stars including Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Toro. After Snatch. (2000) came Turn It Up (2000) with US music star Ja Rule, followed by a supporting actor role in the Sci-Fi film Ghosts of Mars (2001), Jet Li’s The One (2001) and another screen partnership with Vinnie Jones in Mean Machine (2001) under Guy Ritchie’s and Matthew Vaughn’s SKA Films. Finally in 2002 he was cast as the lead role of Frank Martin in The Transporter (2002). Jason is also in the summer 2003 blockbuster remake of The Italian Job (1969), The Italian Job (2003), playing Handsome Rob.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Mikedavies86

Trade Mark
Deadpan, sarcastic delivery

Deep, gravelly voice

Stubble

Trivia
Did nearly all of his own stunts in The Transporter (2002), including car chase sequences, scuba diving sequences and fight sequences.

His break into the entertainment business came when an agent put him on an advertisement for the French Connection clothing company.

Prior to The Transporter (2002) he already had a background in martial arts which enabled him to perform his own fight sequences.

Was originally set play Private Cooper in Dog Soldiers (2002), but dropped out to star in Ghosts of Mars (2001).

Offered the role of Agent 47 in Hitman (2007/I) after Vin Diesel was dropped from the project. Timothy Olyphant eventually took the role.

Well trained in Mixed Martial Arts and is an expert in Kickboxing.

Has appeared in three different films in which his character gets attacked with an axe, The Transporter (2002), Transporter 2 (2005) and War (2007).

Has appeared twice in two different movies in a scene involving his character talking to himself in an elevator, during what appears to be a hallucination. Once in Revolver (2005) and once in Crank (2006).

Has appeared in two films with Ray Liotta, Revolver (2005) and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007), both in which he is the protagonist and Liotta is the antagonist.

Was in a relationship with English model and actress Kelly Brook for several years.

Paid $10,625,000 to purchase a 3,355-square-foot oceanfront house in the Malibu Colony in Malibu, California. In addition, since mid-2005 has owned a 2,281-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, which he purchased for $2.4 million. [2009]

Is in a relationship with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Has appeared in two films which include the song “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Transporter 3 (2008).

Has worked twice with Chris Evans and Jessica Biel, first on Cellular (2004), then on London (2005/I).

Jason Statham spent 12 years on the British national diving team, competing on the 10-meter platform and the 3-meter springboard. In 1992, he was ranked 12th in the world as a platform diver.

Is friends with actor Vinnie Jones, and worked with him 3 times: first in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), then in Snatch (2000) and finally in Mean Machine (2001).

Personal Quotes
You ain’t ever gonna get an Academy Award for doing Crank (2006) and you certainly won’t for doing all the other movies I’ve done.

[on being directed by Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables (2010)] He is someone that you have to respect and with that he runs a very relaxed set.

[on preparing for action roles] I go to this gym full of stunt men. There aren’t any TVs or treadmills there. This is a spit-and-sawdust kind of place. It has a lot of great training aids – trampolines and bags and every weapon ever invented to do harm to a human being. If you want to know how to throw a knife it’s great.

Growing up where I did, you met a lot of colorful characters whose business was on the other side of the law, or more likely you didn’t know what they were up to, and you never would. So playing those kinds of characters now, I can draw on that. The rest of it, you can practice or learn from books. But mostly, I draw from my experiences. That’s all I have, you know.

You see a lot of action films, and it’s almost (like) you can’t tell who’s doing what. It’s chopped up so much, you just see a fist, a leg – it’s all driven by the sound, boom, pow, boom. You wouldn’t know what was happening otherwise. The people who inspired me growing up, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, that’s the real deal. You see them, the camera’s way back, there aren’t a lot of cuts – you feel like you’re really in there. Today, there’s so much technology and green-screen and CGI, you can turn your grandma into an action star. But people are getting wise to that, I think. There’s no substitute for the real thing.

[on performing in action movies] I’ve spent all those years learning how to do certain skills, and then that competitive spirit kicks in and you want to do the stunts. Basically, it’s the the male competitive ego at work.

Salary
The Transporter (2002) $750,000
The Italian Job (2003) $450,000

Where Are They Now
(July 2005) Currently filming In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

(February 2009) Currently filming Crank: High Voltage (2009).

(October 2011) Sofia, Bulgaria: Filming The Expendables 2

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EARLY LIFE
Actor, model, producer. Born Christopher Ashton Kutcher on February 7, 1978, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After starting out as a model, Ashton Kutcher has become a popular actor and a successful producer. He was born minutes ahead of his fraternal twin brother Michael to factory workers Larry and Diane Kutcher. At the age of thirteen, Kutcher was dealt two painful blows. His parents divorced and his brother had to undergo emergency heart transplant surgery after his own heart was badly damaged by a virus. “If I could give him my heart so that he could live, I would have,” Kutcher later told People magazine.

Kutcher, his brother, and their older sister Tausha stayed with their mother after the split. When their mother remarried, they moved to Homestead, a small farm community. In his new hometown, he continued to pursue his interest in acting, appearing in school productions. After his high school days drew to a close, Kutcher’s rebellious side emerged. He was arrested for breaking into his school in his senior year and spent a lot of his time partying.

After graduating in 1996, Kutcher went to the University of Iowa to study biochemical engineering. He joined a fraternity and continued his partying ways for the first few months before hitting the books. In addition to his studies, Kutcher held a number of odd jobs to pay for school, including sweeping up cereal dust at a General Mills factory.

Before being approached a talent scout, Kutcher knew nothing of the world of male modeling. But that soon changed once he entered and won the Fresh Faces of Iowa modeling contest in 1997. This took him to New York City where he signed with a modeling agency. Some of his most famous gigs as a model were for designer Calvin Klein and for the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. During the Abercrombie & Fitch shoot, Kutcher met future girlfriend, January Jones, a model and actress.

BIG BREAK
In the spring of 1998, Kutcher landed his breakthrough role on the popular retro sitcom, That ’70s Show. The comedy followed the life of Eric Foreman (Topher Grace) and his teenage friends as they grew up in the small town of Point Place, Wisconsin. Appearing as the adorable, but dense Michael Kelso, Kutcher won over fans his broad humor and good looks. Mila Kunis played his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jackie, and Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, and Wilmer Valderrama rounded out the rest of the cast as Steve Hyde, Donna Pinciotti, and Fez respectively. The young actors on the show developed a strong bond and were often seen out together in Los Angeles.

In addition to his work on the series, Kutcher started landing film roles. He had small parts in the private school comedy, Coming Soon (1999), the romantic comedy, Down to You (2000), with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Julia Stiles, and the crime drama, Reindeer Games (2000), with Ben Affleck. For his first leading role, Kutcher did not vary much from his television image.

He played a wacky stoner who, along with his friend Sean William Scott, tries to retrace the previous night’s events in Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000). While it was derided by critics, the comedy was a box office hit. Kutcher developed quite a fan base and was named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World that year.

His next film, Texas Rangers (2001), however, failed to make much of an impression on audiences or critics. Bouncing back, he appeared in two romantic comedies, My Boss’s Daughter (2003) and Just Married (2003). After filming Just Married, Kutcher became involved with his co-star Brittany Murphy, but the relationship lasted only a few months. After that, he was romantically linked to actress Demi Moore, which caused quite a stir because of their 15-year age difference.

PRODUCING TELEVISION AND MOVIES
Also in 2003, Kutcher launched his career as a producer. He served as a co-producer on the film My Boss’s Daughter and helped create the hit reality television show, Punk’d, for the MTV cable network. Preying on unsuspecting stars, Punk’d played practical jokes on the likes of Justin Timberlake, Hilary Duff, and Tyra Banks during its eight seasons on the air. Two years later, Kutcher brought another reality show to television, Beauty and the Geek. The show brings together smart, but socially challenged guys with beautiful, but less intelligent women. The women and men are work together in teams to win the grand prize. To freshen up the formula in season four, the show added one pair that featured an attractive guy with a brainy girl.

Tackling more dramatic fare, Kutcher starred in The Butterfly Effect (2004), on which he also served as an executive producer. The science fiction film revolved around a young man who can travel back into his own past to change the course of events. The film did well at the box office, bringing in around $60 million.

Kutcher said good-bye to That ’70s Show in 2005, leaving to pursue other opportunities. Returning to the romantic comedy genre, Kutcher starred in Guess Who (2005) with Zoe Saldana and comedian Bernie Mac and A Lot Like Love (2005) with Amanda Peet.

On September 24, 2005, Kutcher wed Demi Moore in a small ceremony at their Beverly Hills home. Moore’s three daughters from her previous marriage to actor Bruce Willis served as her bridesmaids and walked her down the aisle. While Kutcher was dating Moore, he became very close with her children so much so that they refer to him as “MOD,” or “My Other Dad.” Even more remarkable Kutcher has developed a friendship with Moore’s ex-husband Willis who was on hand for the nuptials.

RECENT WORK
Trying his hand at action, Kutcher appeared in The Guardian (2006) with Kevin Costner. The film was about the U.S. Coast Guard and he played a rescue swimmer. To play the part, Kutcher underwent intensive physical training, which was quite challenging for him. “I used to be a pack-and-a-half-a-day smoker, so I had no endurance,” he told Cosmopolitan magazine. That same year, Kutcher took on something less physically taxing. He lent his voice to the animated film Open Season (2006).

In 2008, he starred in What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz, and the drama Personal Effects with Michelle Pfeiffer. On the producing side, Kutcher was involved with the sitcom Miss Guided, which was picked up by ABC. It was canceled after one season. Kutcher returned to films, appearing in the romantic comedies Killers(2010) and No Strings Attached (2011). He also stepped back on the runway in 2011, modeling in Brazil for the Colicci fashion label.

In addition to acting and producing, Kutcher has a range of business interests. He is an investor in two Los Angeles restaurants, Geisha House and Dolce. For Ooma, a telephone device company, Kutcher serves its creative director. He even returned to modeling in 2008 as part of the advertising campaign for Pepe Jeans London. In 2009, Kutcher made history by becoming the first user on Twitter to have a million followers.

Kutcher has been married to actress Demi Moore since 2005.

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