Ashton Kutcher's Real Name: Christopher Ashton Kutcher

Quick answer: Ashton Kutcher's real name is Christopher Ashton Kutcher. He was born on February 7, 1978, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He grew up as "Chris" and started using his middle name, Ashton, while modeling in New York. He became famous as Michael Kelso on That '70s Show, co-created MTV's Punk'd, and later became a prominent tech investor (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica's quick facts give his name in full as Christopher Ashton Kutcher. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Kutcher, Ashton, 1978-," with the variant "Kutcher, Christopher Ashton, 1978-," and cites "Christopher Ashton Kutcher; b. Feb. 7, 1978."

Britannica says his parents, Larry and Diane Kutcher, were factory workers. He has a fraternal twin brother who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at three and had a heart transplant 10 years later. After his parents divorced, the family moved to Homestead, Iowa. "Chris Kutcher (as he was then known)" acted in school plays and did well academically. During his senior year he was arrested for breaking into his high school and lost expected college scholarships. In 1996 he began studying biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa. He won a local modeling contest in 1997 and moved to New York, modeling for Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch. That is when he began using the name Ashton.

Career highlights

On a two-day trip to Los Angeles in 1998, he won a part on That '70s Show, which ran eight seasons and co-starred his future wife Mila Kunis. Film hits followed with Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003), The Butterfly Effect (2004), and What Happens in Vegas (2008). In 2003 he co-created and hosted Punk'd, which pranked celebrities until 2007.

He replaced Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men in 2011, and his first episode drew about 28 million viewers. He played Steve Jobs in Jobs (2013), starred in Netflix's The Ranch (2016–20), and appeared in Your Place or Mine (2023). From 2010 he co-founded the venture firms A-Grade Investments and Sound Ventures, which backed Airbnb, Uber, and OpenAI. In 2026 he left Sound Ventures to start an AI-focused firm.

In 2009 he co-founded Thorn, a nonprofit that fights child sexual exploitation. He resigned as its chair in 2023 after criticism of a letter he wrote to a judge asking leniency for former co-star Danny Masterson, who had been convicted of rape. He was married to Demi Moore from 2005 until their 2013 divorce, married Kunis in 2015, and they have two children.

Name notes for searchers

Christopher is his legal first name. Ashton, his middle name, became his professional name in the late 1990s. Britannica notes he was known as Chris Kutcher during his school years.