Who Is Natasha Lyonne? A Hollywood Original:
American actress, producer, writer, and director Natasha Lyonne was born in New York City on April 4, 1979. Her most well-known role is that of co-creator and actress of the popular Netflix series Russian Doll. She has starred in movies like But I'm a Cheerleader (1999) and Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), as well as television shows like Orange Is the New Black (2013–19).
Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein was Natasha Lyonne’s birth name. According to The Gentleman, her mother, Ivette (§ Buchinger), was a professional roller skater and ballerina, while her father, Aaron Braunstein, was a boxing promoter. Natasha grew up in a traditional Jewish home with her elder brother, Adam. Her parents formally changed her last name to Lyonne, her middle name, when she was five years old. She was signed by a child modeling agency around the same time, and when she was six years old, she got her first acting part in multiple episodes of Pee-wee’s Playhouse (1986).
Natasha Lyonne’s father relocated the family to Israel when she was eight years old, where he worked as a boxing match promoter for a number of years. Lyonne revealed in a Rolling Stone interview that she grew up watching movies like The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Scarface. She added that she developed a strong, tomboyish demeanor at an early age in order to attract the attention of her emotionally aloof parents.
Natasha Lyonne moved back to New York with her mother following her parents’ divorce. She was expelled from a prestigious Yeshiva high school after being charged with marijuana sales. She departed the house around that time. She got admitted to New York University at the age of sixteen, with the intention of studying philosophy and film. But she quickly left. “I thought, ‘Do I really need to watch Apocalypse,'” she said in a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly. With a hundred obnoxious teenagers now? Since I was four years old, I have been viewing this film.
Everyone Says I Love You and 1990s Films:
Natasha Lyonne was chosen by director Woody Allen to play the daughter of his character in the 1996 film Everyone Says I Love You. This resulted in leading parts in independent films including But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), a cult LGBTQ+ classic, and Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). However, she was primarily given supporting parts in popular movies like American Pie (1999). In 2022, she said of her career, “I’ve often been a sidelined player, an ensemble player,” to The Gentlewoman.
The “Keith Richards Era” and a Return to Acting:
Natasha Lyonne went through what she later called a “well-documented Keith Richards era” in the 2000s, alluding to the Rolling Stones musician who battled heroin addiction throughout his life. Lyonne was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 2001. After reportedly threatening a neighbor and the neighbor’s dog in 2004, she was charged with criminal mischief, trespassing, and harassment.
Natasha Lyonne was admitted to the intensive care unit at Beth Israel Hospital in New York in 2005 as a result of hepatitis C, endocarditis, and collapsed lungs. She was ordered by the court to enter rehab in 2006. In 2012, after five years of sobriety, she had open heart surgery to address endocarditis-related damage.
Natasha Lyonne gradually started to revive her acting career after her rehabilitation. After appearing in Mike Leigh’s play Two Thousand Years in 2007, she went on to perform parts in movies including Night Club (2011) and All About Evil (2010). Additionally, she appeared as a guest on Law & Order: SVU (2011), New Girl (2011), and Weeds (2012).
Natasha Lyonne played Nicky Nichols, a prisoner at a women’s jail, on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black in 2013. “I think Orange Is the New Black finally gave me the freedom to become the kind of New York, male-energy, 1970s-style actor I always wanted to be—with an arc, a storyline, and a fully animated inner life,” she stated in a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone. Her character has the same open heart surgery that Lyonne had in 2012 during the third season of the show. Lyonne’s actual scar was the one displayed following the procedure.
Lyonne won the 2015 and 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in recognition of her efforts on the show. She also had the chance to direct an episode during the show’s existence. In addition to her parts in Girls (2015), Inside Amy Schumer (2015), and Documentary Now! (2019), she appeared on Portlandia several times between 2015 and 2018.
Together with playwright Leslye Headland and actress and writer Amy Poehler, Lyonne co-created Russian Doll in 2019. She also played the feisty New Yorker Nadia Vulvokov, who gets caught in a time loop. Additionally, Lyonne directed a number of episodes. Her acting and writing Emmy nominations came from the series, which was a critical and fan favorite. The second season of the show, which debuted in 2022, was renewed.
Hollywood recognized the need for more nuanced characters like Nadia after the success of Russian Doll. After then, Lyonne starred in the crime-thriller series Poker Face (2023–), where she portrayed a cunning casino employee with the remarkable capacity to detect dishonesty. She also directed and scripted one of the show’s episodes. Lyonne costarred with Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon in the 2023 movie His Three Daughters. Lyonne won particular recognition for her role in the critically praised drama, which centers on siblings who band together to care for their dying father.
Lyonne was listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023 because of her outstanding body of work. “Natasha is always the coolest person in the room,” wrote Taika Waititi, a writer and filmmaker.