Natasha Lyonne

Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She is known for playing Nicky Nichols on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress, and for her portrayal of Nadia Vulvokov on the Netflix series ''Russian Doll'' (2019–present), which she also co-created, executive produces, writes, and directs. For the latter, Lyonne has received nominations for three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Lyonne made her feature film debut in 1986 with a small, uncredited appearance in ''Heartburn''. She played more prominent parts in '' Dennis the Menace'' (1993); ''Everyone Says I Love You'' (1996); ''Slums of Beverly Hills'' (1998); ''Detroit Rock City'', '' Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby'', and '' But I'm a Cheerleader'' (all 1999); '' Scary Movie 2'', ''The Grey Zone'', and '' Kate & Leopold'' (all 2001); '' Die, Mommie, Die!'' and '' Party Monster'' (both 2003); '' Blade: Trinity'' (2004); ''All About Evil'' (2010); '' Sleeping with Other People'', ''Hello, My Name Is Doris'', and '' Addicted to Fresno'' (all 2015); ''Antibirth'' and ''Yoga Hosers'' (both 2016); ''Show Dogs'' (2018); '' Honey Boy'' and '' Ad Astra'' (both 2019); '' Irresistible'' (2020); ''The United States vs. Billie Holiday'' (2021); and ''DC League of Super-Pets'' (2022). She is also known for portraying Jessica in the ''American Pie'' film series (1999–2012).

Early life

Lyonne was born in New York City, the daughter of Ivette Buchinger and Aaron Braunstein, a boxing promoter, race car driver and radio host, distantly related to cartoonist Al Jaffee. Lyonne's parents were from Orthodox Jewish families, and she was raised Orthodox. Her mother was born in Paris, France, to Hungarian-Jewish parents who were Holocaust survivors. Lyonne has darkly joked that her family consists of "my father's side, Flatbush, and my mother's side, Auschwitz." Her grandmother Ella came from a large family. Only she and her two sisters and two brothers survived, which Lyonne credits to their blond hair and blue eyes. Lyonne's grandfather Morris Buchinger operated a watch company in Los Angeles. During the war, he hid in Budapest as a non-Jew working in a leather factory. Lyonne lived the first eight years of her life in Great Neck, New York.

Lyonne and her parents emigrated to Israel, where she spent a year and a half. During her stay with her family in Israel, Lyonne participated in the 1989 Israeli children's film ''April Fool'' ( he, אחד באפריל), which began her interest in acting. Her parents divorced, and Lyonne and her older brother, Adam, returned to America with their mother. After moving back to New York City, Lyonne attended the Ramaz School, a private Jewish school, where Lyonne said she was a scholarship kid who took honors Talmud classes and read Aramaic. She was expelled for selling marijuana at school. Lyonne grew up on the Upper East Side, where she felt she was an outcast. Her mother moved their family to Miami, where Lyonne attended Miami Country Day School. She did not graduate from high school, leaving before her senior year to attend a film program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her high school graduation depended on completing her first year at Tisch, but she left the program because she could not pay the tuition.

Lyonne attended New York University for a short time, studying film and philosophy.

Lyonne was estranged from her father, who was a Democratic candidate for City Council for the sixth District of Manhattan in 2013, and lived on the Upper West Side until his death in October 2014. She has said she is not close to her mother and has essentially lived independently of her family since age 16.

Career

As a young child, Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency. At age six, she was cast as Opal on ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'', followed by film appearances in ''Heartburn'', ''A Man Called Sarge'', and '' Dennis the Menace''. Of working as a very young child actor, Lyonne has said: "I didn't have the best parents. I don't think they are bad people. Even if they were ready to have children, it is kind of a wacky idea to put your child in business at six years old."

Film

At age 16, Lyonne was cast in the Woody Allen-directed ''Everyone Says I Love You'' (1996). This led to appearances in a variety of films over the next 10 years, including starring roles in the independent features ''Slums of Beverly Hills'' (1998), for which she received two Teen Choice Award nominations, and '' But I'm a Cheerleader'' (1999). During this time, she appeared as Jessica in the highly successful teen comedy '' American Pie'' (1999), reprising the role in two of its sequels. Lyonne's other films during this period included ''Detroit Rock City'', '' Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby'' (both 1999), '' Scary Movie 2'', ''The Grey Zone'', '' Kate & Leopold'' (all 2001), '' Party Monster'' (2003), and '' Blade: Trinity'' (2004). Her later film appearances include ''All About Evil'' (2010), '' 4:44 Last Day on Earth'' (2011), ''Girl Most Likely'', '' Loitering with Intent'', '' Sleeping with Other People'', ''Hello, My Name Is Doris'', '' Addicted to Fresno'', '' #Horror'', ''Yoga Hosers'', ''Antibirth'', '' The Intervention'', '' Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie'', and '' Honey Boy''. She also made a cameo appearance as herself in the 2022 Netflix film '' Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery''.

Theater

Lyonne made her New York stage debut in the award-winning New Group production of Mike Leigh's ''Two Thousand Years''.

She was part of the original cast of the award-winning ''Love, Loss, and What I Wore'', a play by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the book by Ilene Beckerman.

In 2010, Lyonne received positive reviews for her performance in Kim Rosenstock's comedy ''Tigers Be Still'' at the Roundabout Theatre Company: "a thorough delight in the flat-out funniest role, the grief-crazed Grace, so deeply immersed in self-pity that she has cast aside any attempts at decorum".

In 2011, Lyonne starred opposite Ethan Hawke and Ann Dowd in New Group's production of Tommy Nohilly's ''Blood From a Stone''. The next year, she participated in New Group's benefit performance of '' Women Behind Bars''.

Of working in the theater, Lyonne has said, "There's something about theater that squashes the self-critical voices because you have to be in the moment. I'm glad that I didn't do this before I was ready before I was capable of showing up every day. That is not a skill set I had before".

Television

Lyonne has made guest appearances on the series ''Grounded for Life'', '' Weeds'', ''New Girl'', ''Will & Grace'', and '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''.

From 2013 to 2019 she appeared as Nicky Nichols in the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black''. The role is Lyonne's first television job as a series regular. She received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014, and was twice awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, along with her co-stars.

In 2014 Lyonne was cast in Amy Poehler's NBC comedy pilot ''Old Soul'', directed by David Wain. In 2016 she began voicing the character Smoky Quartz on the Cartoon Network show ''Steven Universe''. She has also appeared as various characters on IFC's sketch comedy series ''Portlandia''. In 2018 she voiced the character Gaz Digzy on Adult Swim's comedy series '' Ballmastrz: 9009''. She has voiced characters on ''The Simpsons'' and Netflix's '' Big Mouth''.

Her performance in the 2019 Netflix series ''Russian Doll'' has been praised as "astonishing". Alan Sepinwall of ''Rolling Stone'' called it "brilliant". The series received 13 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Lyonne's performance as Nadia Vulvokov, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

Directing and producing

In 2017, Lyonne was approached by Kenzo's creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon to direct the 5th installment in their short film series. For this, her directorial debut, she began writing a script with Maya Rudolph in mind to star. The surrealist short film was titled ''Cabiria, Charity, Charlotte ''and starred Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Greta Lee, Leslie Odom Jr. and Macaulay Culkin.

In September 2017, Lyonne's project ''Russian Doll'' was given an eight-episode straight-to-series order by Netflix. The comedy, co-created and executive produced by Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, premiered on February 1, 2019. Lyonne has multiple roles in the series. She is credited as the lead actress and is one of the series's executive producers with directorial and writing credits.

In 2018, Lyonne and Rudolph co-founded the production company Animal Pictures. Its first greenlit project was '' Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine'', which Lyonne directed.

Lyonne directed an episode of ''Orange Is the New Black'' in its seventh and final season, as well as an episode of Hulu's '' Shrill'', "WAHAM", and an episode of '' High Fidelity'', "Weird...But Warm."

Personal life

When she was 18, Lyonne used the paycheck from her work on ''Everyone Says I Love You'' to buy a small apartment near Gramercy Park. During the early 2000s, she experienced legal problems and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, and for incidents involving her neighbors. In 2005, she was evicted by her landlord, actor Michael Rapaport, following complaints by other tenants about her behavior.

In 2005, Lyonne was admitted (under a pseudonym) to Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, suffering from hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung; she was also undergoing methadone treatment for heroin addiction. In January 2006, a warrant was issued for her arrest after she missed a court hearing relating to her prior legal problems. Her lawyer said an emergency had arisen but did not give details. Later that year, Lyonne was admitted to a drug and alcohol treatment center, and she appeared in court afterward. A judge sentenced her to conditional discharge.

Lyonne underwent open-heart surgery in 2012 to correct heart valve damage caused by her endocarditis heart infection, which could have resulted in sudden death if untreated. She recovered from the surgery and discussed her past health problems on '' The Rosie Show'' in March 2012.

Lyonne lives in New York City's East Village. She and ''Saturday Night Live'' alumnus Fred Armisen began dating in 2014; Lyonne confirmed they had ended their relationship in April 2022.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

* The song "Natasha" from ''Want One'' by Rufus Wainwright was written for and about Lyonne.

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyonne, Natasha
1979 births
Hungarian Orthodox Jews
American Orthodox Jews
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American expatriates in Israel
American film actresses
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American television actresses
American voice actresses
Jewish American actresses
Living people
People from the Upper East Side
Ramaz School alumni
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
People from Great Neck, New York
People from Gramercy Park
American women television directors
American television directors
Miami Country Day School alumni