Before she got her big break on the television series, That 70s Show, Mila Kunis spent the first half of her childhood in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. When she was seven, her family relocated to the US, in part due to anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, which Ukraine was still a part of at that time.
The change was a huge upheaval for the Black Swan star, who was enrolled in second grade at a local school in Los Angeles despite not speaking a word of English. To help her gain more fluency, Kunis’ mother enrolled her in acting lessons – something that undoubtedly paid off in more ways than the family expected.
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2. Milla Jovovich
Supermodel and movie star Milla Jovovich is known for her illustrious career and jet-setting lifestyle, but her origins are much more humble. Born in the capital city of Kyiv, the Resident Evil and The Fifth Element star spent her first few years in Ukraine and her mother’s native Moscow, and then later the US, where her parents worked as house cleaners for director Brian DePalma. The actress and musician has been vocal about her roots, performing Ukrainian folk songs and raising money for local charities during the 2014 protests in Kyiv.
3. Vera Farmiga
Although she was born in the US, actress Vera Farmiga was raised in a Ukrainian community in New Jersey. Famous for her role as American paranormal investigator, Lorraine Warren, in The Conjuring film franchise, Farmiga didn’t actually learn how to speak English until she was six years old, according to Vulture.
The second of seven siblings in an Eastern Orthodox family – including sister Taissa, star of the HBO period drama The Gilded Age – Farmiga grew up unapologetically Ukrainian. “I went to Ukrainian Catholic school, all my extracurricular activities were within the Ukrainian community, I even became a professional Ukrainian folk dancer,” she told The Guardian.
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4. Katheryn Winnick
The Canadian actress was actually born to Ukrainian immigrant parents, who raised her and her siblings speaking Ukrainian as their first language. Winnick has been vocal about Ukraine’s sovereignty, posting her support on social media and writing, “I stand by my motherland, Ukraine.”
5. Leonard Nimoy
Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy grew up proudly Jewish in Boston, Massachusetts, speaking and reading Yiddish his entire life until his death in 2015. But the actor was only able to embrace his Jewish faith so fully because of his Orthodox Jewish parents, who fled Ukraine after pogroms – violent anti-Jewish riots – started to sweep the country in the early twentieth century.
His parents’ experiences as Ukrainian Jewish refugees left an indelible mark on Nimoy, which he credited for inspiring him in his most famous role as Dr Spock – a half-Vulcan, half-human doctor who is an outcast minority.
