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Danny Masterson

Danny MastersonAKA Daniel Peter Masterson

Born: 13-Mar-1976
Birthplace: Albertson, Long Island, NY

Gender: Male
Religion: Scientology
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Hyde on That 70's Show

Danny Masterson was a child model, featured in magazine ads and TV commercials from the age of four. His parents, both heavily into Scientology, divorced when Masterson was eight years old. He was raised on New York's Long Island by his mother, who was also his manager. At 12 he had a tiny role in an episode of Jake and the Fatman, and he had appeared in more than 100 commercials by the time he dropped out of high school after tenth grade, to come to Hollywood.

At 18 he landed his first sitcom, playing the title character's irresponsible teenaged nephew on Joe's Life. The show lasted only a few months, and Masterson later resurfaced on Roseanne, playing a short-term boyfriend for daughter Darlene. On Extreme, a 1995 action series with James Brolin as a rescue worker in a mountain park, Masterson played a wacky local teenager providing a few moments of comic relief. In 1996 he appeared in three episodes of Party of Five, long enough for a brief romantic interlude with Jennifer Love Hewitt's character before Masterson disappeared from that show. On the sitcom Cybill he played Christine Baranski's son who was dating Alicia Witt, but he left in 1998 when he landed a much bigger role on That '70s Show, playing the cynical, mildly subversive smart-ass Steven Hyde.

Masterson's occasional movie roles have usually been small, or in films that bombed or were never released theatrically. His best-remembered big-screen performance was a single scene in the action film Face/Off, where he played Dominique Swain's thuggish boyfriend, and was beaten by Nicolas Cage inhabiting John Travolta's body.

Along with Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama, his co-stars from That '70s Show, Masterson is co-owner of the trendy Los Angeles nightspot Dolce. Billing himself as DJ Donkey Punch, he occasionally works as a nightclub disc jockey, and he hosts Feel My Heat, a once-weekly program spotlighting independent rock'n'roll which airs on a Santa Monica radio station. But Masterson is not a typical club-hopping Hollywood type -- a life-long Scientologist, he has taken at least a dozen of the church's courses since 1992. He says he has never used illegal drugs, and does not even take aspirin for a headache.

Most of his siblings are actors, or trying to make it as actors. His brother Chris Masterson played the oldest brother Francis on Malcolm in the Middle, and is living with Laura Prepon, who played Donna on That '70s Show. His sister Alanna Masterson had a regular role on The Young and the Restless as a child in the mid-1990s, and has worked more recently in obscure independent films. His brother Jordan Masterson has a long résumé of small roles on TV shows, and had a tiny part as an impressionable teenager in The 40 Year Old Virgin with Steve Carell.

Father: Peter Masterson (insurance salesman)
Mother: Carol Masterson (agent, runs Masterson Management)
Brother: Chris Masterson (actor)
Brother: Jordan Masterson (half-brother from his mother's second marriage)
Sister: Alanna Masterson (former actress, b. 27-Jun-1988)
Brother: Will Masterson (half-brother from his mother's second marriage)
Girlfriend: Chrissie Carnell (actress, dated and cohabited late 1990s)
Girlfriend: Bobette Riales (model, dated 2003)
Wife: Bijou Phillips (singer, together since 2003, m. 18-Oct-2011)

    High School: Garden City High School, Garden City, NY (dropped out)
    University: Pasadena Art Center (dropped out)

    Vaccination Skeptics
    Endorsement of Kellogg Frosted Flakes

    TELEVISION
    That '70s Show Steven Hyde (1998-2006)
    Cybill Justin Thorpe (1996-98)
    Joe's Life Leo Gennaro (1993)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Made for Each Other (25-Apr-2009)
    Wake (25-Feb-2009) · Shane
    Yes Man (13-Dec-2008)
    The Brooklyn Heist (1-Nov-2008)
    Spin (26-Jan-2007) · Derek
    Smiley Face (21-Jan-2007) · Steve the Roomate
    Puff, Puff, Pass (9-May-2006)
    Comic Book Villains (1-Jan-2002) · Conan
    Sex and a Girl (9-Mar-2001) · Patrick
    Strange Frequency (24-Jan-2001)
    Dracula 2000 (22-Dec-2000) · Nightshade
    Dirt Merchant (16-Sep-1999) · Dirt Merchant
    The Faculty (12-Nov-1998) · F*%# Up #1
    Star Kid (13-Nov-1997)
    Trojan War (26-Sep-1997) · Seth
    Face/Off (27-Jun-1997) · Karl
    Her Last Chance (8-Apr-1996)
    Bye Bye, Love (17-Mar-1995) · Mikey
    Beethoven's 2nd (16-Dec-1993) · Seth


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