Danny Masterson #

Introduction #

Danny Masterson, the actor best known for playing Steven Hyde on the sitcom That ’70s Show, was sentenced on September 7, 2023, to 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of two counts of forcible rape. The conviction came from a retrial that ended in May 2023, more than two decades after the alleged assaults and years after the accusations first became public during the #MeToo movement.

The path to trial was a long one, delayed by pre-trial litigation over evidence and by pandemic-related court closures. A first trial in late 2022 ended without a verdict, and Masterson remained free on bail until the conclusion of the retrial. He has now been in state custody since the sentencing.

Background Information #

Masterson was born in 1976 on Long Island, New York, and began acting as a child, appearing in commercials and guest roles on television series in the 1990s. He was raised within the Church of Scientology, an affiliation that would later become central to the case against him.

His breakout role came as Steven Hyde on Fox’s That ’70s Show, which ran from 1998 to 2006 and made him one of television’s most recognizable sitcom actors. Years later, he returned to television as a star of Netflix’s The Ranch, a comedy that reunited him with several of his former That ’70s Show castmates. Several of those co-stars were also Scientologists, a circumstance that drew renewed attention once the allegations surfaced.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

In 2017, as the #MeToo movement grew, three women came forward publicly alleging that Masterson had raped them in the early 2000s. Netflix responded by writing his character out of The Ranch, and his agent and publicist dropped him as a client.

In June 2020, Masterson was arrested and charged with three counts of rape by force or fear, allegedly committed against three women between 2001 and 2003. He pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations, and he was released on bail while the case moved through the courts.

The alleged victims were fellow Scientologists at the time, and the case drew scrutiny of the Church of Scientology’s handling of reports made within its ranks; the church denied wrongdoing. The trial judge later ruled that statements Masterson had made to church officials during internal proceedings were admissible at trial, a decision that shaped how the prosecution built its case.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

A first trial in late 2022 ended with a hung jury on all counts, and prosecutors moved to retry the case. In the retrial, which began in spring 2023, prosecutors and the accusers alleged that the church had discouraged the women from going to authorities at the time; the defense argued the encounters were consensual.

On May 31, 2023, the jury convicted Masterson on two counts of forcible rape and deadlocked on a third. The verdict was among the highest-profile sexual assault convictions to emerge from the #MeToo era, and it reignited public discussion of Scientology and of the alleged pressure placed on the women to keep silent.

Ahead of sentencing, two of Masterson’s former That ’70s Show co-stars, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, submitted letters asking the court for leniency. The letters drew widespread criticism, and the couple issued a public apology.

Current Status #

Masterson is serving his sentence of 30 years to life at a California state prison, where he has remained since he was taken into custody at the sentencing hearing. Under the terms of the sentence, he must serve at least 30 years before he can be considered for parole.

Per court records and press reports, an appeals court upheld his conviction in 2025. His wife at the time of the sentencing, actress Bijou Phillips, filed for divorce shortly afterward.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The accusations and the conviction effectively ended Masterson’s acting career. He was written out of The Ranch in 2018, lost his agent and publicist not long after the allegations became public, and has been incarcerated since September 2023.

Beyond his own career, the case has had lasting consequences for public conversation about the Church of Scientology, whose handling of the women’s reports remained a focus of scrutiny throughout the proceedings even as the church continued to deny wrongdoing. It also stands as one of the rare cases in which allegations dating back decades resulted in a conviction, at a time when most high-profile #MeToo-era accusations never reached trial.

For the women who testified, the jury’s verdict came roughly two decades after the alleged assaults and lent support to accounts that had been publicly questioned for years. For Masterson, it meant the end of a career built on one of television’s most popular sitcoms of its era.