Natasha Lyonne

Natasha Lyonne (born April 4, 1979, New York City, New York, U.S.) is an American actress, producer, writer, and director known for starring in and co-creating the hit Netflix series Russian Doll. Her decades-long career also included starring roles in Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) and But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) and supporting parts in such TV series as Orange Is the New Black (2013–19).

Early life

Lyonne was born Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein to Aaron Braunstein, a boxing promoter, and Ivette (née Buchinger), who, The Gentlewoman reports, had been a ballerina and a professional roller skater. She and her elder brother, Adam, were raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. Her parents legally changed her last name to her middle name, Lyonne, when she was five. About this time they signed up Lyonne as a child model with an agency, and, at the age of six, she had her first acting gig in several episodes (1986) of Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Her father moved the family to Israel when Lyonne was eight, promoting fights in the country for several years. She told Rolling Stone that as a kid she grew up watching such movies as Scarface, Taxi Driver, and The Godfather, and adopted a tough tomboy attitude to get her distant parents’ attention.

Lyonne moved back to New York with her mother after her parents divorced. She attended an exclusive yeshiva high school but was kicked out for selling marijuana. About this time she left home, and at age 16 she was accepted into New York University, where she planned to study film and philosophy. She soon dropped out, however, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2012, “I thought, ‘Do I really need to watch Apocalypse Now with 100 f—ing teenagers? I’ve been watching this movie since I was 4 years old.’”

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Everyone Says I Love You and other movies from the 1990s

After director Woody Allen cast Lyonne as his character’s daughter in Everyone Says I Love You (1996), she landed lead roles in such independent films as Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) and cult LGBTQ+ classic But I’m a Cheerleader (1999). In mainstream movies, such as American Pie (1999), she could only seemingly land roles as a supporting character. She told The Gentlewoman 2022, “I’d been so often a sidelined player, an ensemble player.”

“Keith Richards era” and return to acting

In the 2000s Lyonne had what she called “a well-documented Keith Richards era,” referring to the Rolling Stones guitarist who struggled with heroin use throughout his life. In 2001 she was arrested for driving under the influence, and in 2004 she was charged with criminal mischief, trespass, and harassment for threatening a neighbor and the neighbor’s dog. In 2005 Lyonne checked into Beth Israel Hospital in New York and was put in the intensive care unit with a collapsed lung, endocarditis, and hepatitis C. In 2006 she went to court-ordered rehab. In 2012, after five years of sobriety, she underwent open-heart surgery to repair the damage done by the endocarditis.

After rehab, Lyonne slowly began to return to acting. In 2007 she landed a role in the Mike Leigh play Two Thousand Years and later had parts in such films as All About Evil (2010) and Night Club (2011). Lyonne also had guest appearances on the TV shows Law & Order: SVU in 2011, New Girl in 2011, and Weeds in 2012.

Orange Is the New Black

In 2013 Lyonne took on the role as Nicky Nichols, an inmate in a women’s prison, on the Netflix show Orange Is the New Black. She told Rolling Stone in 2020, “I think that in Orange Is the New Black I was really allowed to be the sort of New York, male, Seventies actor that I wanted to be, with an arc, a storyline, and a fully animated thought life.” In season three her character has the same open-heart surgery Lyonne had in 2012. When the character shows off her post-surgery scar, it’s Lyonne’s real scar on display. The series garnered Lyonne a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2015 and 2017. While on Orange Is the New Black, Lyonne had the opportunity to direct an episode. She also appeared on Portlandia several times between 2015 and 2018, Girls in 2015, Inside Amy Schumer in 2015, and Documentary Now! in 2019.

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Russian Doll

In 2019 Lyonne created the show Russian Doll with actress and writer Amy Poehler and playwright Leslye Headland. Lyonne also starred in the series as Nadia Vulvokov, a hardened New Yorker who finds herself stuck in a time loop. She also directed several episodes. The show was a critical success and audience favorite, and Lyonne received Emmy nominations for acting and writing. It was renewed for a second season, which premiered in 2022.

Poker Face and His Three Daughters

After the success of Russian Doll, Hollywood seemingly recognized the need for more characters like Nadia, and Lyonne next starred in the crime-thriller series Poker Face (2023– ), playing a wise-cracking casino worker who has the extraordinary gift of being able to tell if a person is lying. Lyonne also wrote and directed an episode. Her other credits from 2023 include the film His Three Daughters, in which she starred with Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon. The acclaimed drama centers on siblings who come together to care for their dying father, and Lyonne earned particular acclaim for her performance.

With this string of notable projects, Lyonne was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023. “Natasha is always the coolest person in the room,” wrote filmmaker and writer Taika Waititi.

“It’s not the hair, it’s not the voice…well maybe it’s a little bit of the hair and the voice, but mainly she exudes that rare magnetism of old Hollywood where you’re immediately drawn to her corner of the room. And she always has her corner. And it’s a good corner to be in.”