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That ’70s Show’s Cast Has Really Transformed

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The basement gang from Point Place grew up on camera — and then kept right on growing after Fox turned the lights off.

Nicki Swift’s retrospective on That ’70s Show traces what happened to the core cast after the series wrapped its eight-season run in May 2006. The show turned a handful of relatively unknown teen actors into some of the most recognizable names in Hollywood, and the video breaks down just how far each of them traveled — from Eric Forman’s basement couch to red carpets, Silicon Valley boardrooms and, in one case, a courtroom.

• Topher Grace went from playing Eric Forman to starring in Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018) before landing back on network TV with ABC’s Home Economics in 2021.
• Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, who played onscreen high school sweethearts starting when Kunis was still a minor, ended up marrying for real in 2015 and now have two kids together.
• Laura Prepon reinvented herself as Alex Vause on Orange Is the New Black and Wilmer Valderrama shed his comic-relief image for a dramatic role on NCIS, while Danny Masterson’s career collapsed following legal controversies in late 2017.

From Point Place to the A-List

Grace’s path out of Point Place ran through some of the more prestigious credits any former sitcom lead has managed. After playing Eric Forman for eight seasons, he took a supporting turn as Venom’s alter ego in Spider-Man 3, then resurfaced more than a decade later in a role critics actually praised — the detective in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. By 2021, he was back in front of a live studio audience as the lead of ABC’s Home Economics, proof that the sitcom-to-film-and-back pipeline still works for the right actor.

Kutcher and Kunis had arguably the most publicly tracked transformation of anyone in the cast. Kutcher parlayed Kelso’s dumb-jock charm into a run hosting MTV’s Punk’d and a second act as one of Silicon Valley’s more visible venture capitalists, while Kunis built a résumé that includes an acclaimed turn in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). The two started as onscreen teenagers falling for each other in the writers’ room, not real life — Kunis was a minor when she was cast — and didn’t become a couple until years after the show ended, marrying in 2015.

Two kids who played high school sweethearts on a basement couch ended up actually marrying each other a decade later.

Reinventions Behind and Beyond the Basement

Laura Prepon didn’t just change her look after playing Donna Pinciotti — she rebuilt her entire public identity, starring as Alex Vause on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and later publishing wellness books, a hard turn from the girl-next-door role that made her famous. Wilmer Valderrama had arguably the toughest typecasting to shake: Fez was pure comic relief, but Valderrama has spent years now as Special Agent Nick Torres on NCIS, one of network TV’s longest-running procedurals. Fans looking for more on the show’s supporting talent can revisit The Best Guest Stars On That ’70s Show for a look at who else passed through Point Place.

Danny Masterson’s Fall

Not every arc in the video is an upward one. Danny Masterson, who played Steven Hyde, co-starred with Kutcher on Netflix’s The Ranch before severe legal controversies derailed his career in late 2017 — a sharp contrast to the trajectories of his former castmates. It’s the one storyline in the retrospective that doesn’t end with a bigger paycheck or a bigger stage.

The Cast Members Gone Too Soon

The feature also pauses on the cast members who never got the chance for a “where are they now” chapter. Lisa Robin Kelly, who played Eric’s older sister Laurie Forman, died in 2013. Tanya Roberts, the former Bond girl who played Midge Pinciotti, passed away in January 2021. Veteran cast members Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith — Kitty and Red Forman — round out the group still working, the elders of the Forman household outlasting most of the kids who sat at their table. For more on how the show’s legacy has been shadowed by loss, see Tragic Details About The Cast Of That ’70s Show.

With a ’90s Show reboot already in motion, the real question hanging over Point Place is simple: how many of the original basement crew actually show up for it, and in what shape they’re in when they do.