‘The Ranch’ Star Elisha Cuthbert Shares New Photo as She Celebrates Turning 41

Elisha Cuthbert is marking her birthday with a great helping of sincere gratitude and youthful positivity. The House of Wax star commemorated her 41st with a photo of herself holding the red skirt of her black dress as if she’s about to bust a move. Cuthbert wrote in the caption, “Dancing my way into 41 years today! So grateful and so much Love.”

The actress gained widespread fame due to her breakout roles in the 2004 teen comedy The Girl Next Door and the TV series 24. From 2011 to 2013, she also starred as Alex Kerkovich for three seasons on ABC’s comedy Happy Endings and was named by Maxim as 2013’s “TV’s Most Beautiful Woman.”

As Cuthbert said in an interview with Women’s Health, she spent several years sampling what she calls “the hype and glory” of being a young Hollywood starlet in the past. “For a long time, I was naïve about who I was surrounded by,” she told the outlet in 2009, explaining that she “got caught up in the L.A. scene.” 

As a result, she went out every night with people she maybe shouldn’t have hung out with. While it was “not that they were bad people,” she said, “I just couldn’t ask any of them to drive me to the airport.” In addition to that, she admitted that she “used to be hustle-hustle, work-work.” She’d “[wake] up in the morning and went to bed thinking about acting,” a habit that she described as “borderline” unhealthy.

Although Cuthbert remains active professionally, she no longer maintains an LA-style social circle. She married Dion Phaneuf, then captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, in 2013. In 2017, the couple welcomed their first child. 

Since then, she has appeared in a number of movies and TV shows, including in the role of Abby Phillips-Bennett on the Netflix sitcom The Ranch. Cuthbert had a career resurgence due to the show, as in 2022, she starred in the films The Cellar, The Bandit, and most recently, Friday Afternoon in the Universe.

Additionally, she has been involved in a variety of exciting activities and ventures that have kept her both active and relaxed. “For the first time, I’m trying to not worry,” she told Women’s Health. “I don’t feel like I have to prove anything; I’m not in a panic anymore. I’m certainly not finished, but I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I’m concentrating on other things in my life.”