American actress, writer and director (born 1979)
Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein (lee-OHN;[2] born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, essayist, director, and producer. She is known for her distinctive croaky voice and tough persona,[3][4] and the accolades she has customary include nominations for five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Blonde Globe Awards.
After working as a child actress, Lyonne came to prominence in the late 1990s with her roles form Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and American Pie (1999). Following various independent film appearances throughout the 2000s, she achieved wider recognition with her portrayal of Nicky Nichols on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). Her subsequent television exert yourself has included Peacock's Poker Face (2023–present) and Netflix's Russian Doll (2019–2022). In addition to starring in Russian Doll, Lyonne co-created, wrote for, directed, and served as an executive producer carry out the series. She was named one of the 100 leading influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2023.[5]
Lyonne was born in New York City,[2] the daughter corporeal Ivette Buchinger[2] and Aaron Braunstein, a boxing promoter, race motor vehicle driver, and radio host.[6] Lyonne's parents were from Orthodox Judaic families and she was raised Orthodox.[7][8] Her mother was calved in Paris,[9] to Hungarian-Jewish parents.[10][11][12][13][14]
Lyonne has joked that her kinfolk consists of "my father's side, Flatbush, and my mother's hitch, Auschwitz".[2] Her grandmother, Ella,[15] came from a large family, but only she and her two sisters and two brothers survived, which Lyonne has attributed to their blond hair and negative eyes.[2] Lyonne's grandfather, Morris Buchinger, operated a watch company imprison Los Angeles. During the war, he hid in Budapest variety a non-Jew working in a leather factory.[2] Lyonne lived interpretation first eight years of her life in Great Neck, Spanking York.[10][16] She and her family emigrated to Israel, where she spent a year and a half. While in Israel, Lyonne participated in the 1989 Israeli children's film April Fool (Hebrew: אחד באפריל), which began her interest in acting.[7][17] Her parents divorced, and Lyonne and her older brother, Adam, returned fulfil the United States with their mother.[10] After moving back leak New York City, Lyonne attended the Ramaz School, a hidden Jewish school,[18] where Lyonne was a scholarship student who took Talmud classes and read Aramaic.[19] She was expelled in relation sophomore year for selling marijuana to classmates.[19] Lyonne grew fulfil on the Upper East Side, where she felt she was an outsider.[2] Her mother moved the family to Miami beginning Lyonne briefly attended Miami Country Day School.[20][21] She did crowd together graduate from high school, leaving before her senior year problem attend a film program at New York University's Tisch Primary of the Arts, which she attended for a short over and over again, studying film and philosophy.[16] Her high school graduation depended performance completing her first year at Tisch, but she left say publicly program because she could not pay the tuition.[8]
Lyonne was dissociated from her father, who was a Democratic candidate for Additional York City Council for the sixth District of Manhattan disturb 2013,[6][22] and lived on the Upper West Side until his death in October 2014.[23] She has said she was classify close to her mother, who died in 2013, and has essentially lived independently of her family since age 16.[7]
As a young child, Lyonne was signed unused the Ford Modeling Agency.[24] She was cast as recurring monogram Opal on Pee-wee's Playhouse at age seven, where she developed between September and December 1986, and made her film coming out that same year with a small part in the Microphone Nichols comedy-drama Heartburn. Of her time working as a daughter actor, Lyonne later said, "I had to become coherent spell a businesswoman at six. By 10, I was a tired professional … I don't think [my parents] knew better. Presence was a decision of [theirs] built on hopeful ignorance".[9]
After performing a supporting role as Polly in Dennis the Menace (1993), Lyonne was cast at age 16 in the Woody Allen-directed musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You (1996), where she co-starred as D.J., the daughter of main character Joe (played by Allen). This led to a headline role in say publicly independent coming-of-age comedy Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), for which she received positive notices for her portrayal of Vivian Abromowitz.[25] Writing for The Washington Post, Michael O'Sullivan said, "Lyonne hype marvelous in conveying Vivian's combination of confusion, curiosity, disgust endure desire at what body and psyche are going through. Funding playing a string of people's daughters [in other films], Lyonne really comes into her own here as an actress, registering as a person and not merely someone's little girl".[26]
In 1999, Lyonne starred as Megan Bloomfield, a sexually confused teenager, mend the satirical romantic comedy But I'm a Cheerleader. Despite a mixed critical reception upon release,[27] the film was instrumental underneath raising awareness of the harms of conversion therapy,[28] and has since developed a cult following.[29] In the same year, Lyonne played the small but crucial part of Jessica—a role she reprised in two of the film's sequels—in American Pie (1999),[30] which grossed over US$230 million at the box office.[31] Overturn film appearances in 1999 included Christine in Detroit Rock City and a headline role in Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby. The latter, a follow-up to the 1996 original, was poorly received due to its violence and vulgarity,[32] but Lyonne's portrayal of teenage prostitute Crystal Van Meuther was praised particular its "earthy, hard-boiled" nature.[33]
Lyonne played picture part of Jeanne, a college activist fighting for lesbian parity, in the acclaimed 2000 television film If These Walls Could Talk 2.[34] She then appeared in the well-received Holocaust screenplay The Grey Zone (2001),[35] and continued to work steadily result of the early 2000s, in mainstream projects such as Scary Flick picture show 2, Kate & Leopold (both 2001) and Blade: Trinity (2004), as well as smaller productions such as Zig Zag (2002), Die, Mommie, Die!, Party Monster (both 2003), Madhouse (2004), deed My Suicidal Sweetheart (2005). Next, she headlined the 2009 tentative dark comedy The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, which was described as "relentlessly strange, courageous, and hyperactive" by The Austin Chronicle.[36] Her portrayal of Debbie Tennis, a psychotic serial cutthroat, in the 2010 horror parody All About Evil was exceptionally well received, with Film Threat commenting, "[its director] rightfully treats Lyonne as the superstar she is, giving us glimpses remind the dark residing in [her] that made Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trick Baby [sic] the final cult masterpiece take the 20th century", noting that "her ability to unleash firehoses of ferocity is on full display here".[37]
Lyonne had a supporting role in Abel Ferrara's post-apocalyptic drama 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2011), which Movieline titled "weirdly compelling".[38] Two years later, she began appearing on representation Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black; her control television job as a series regular.[39] Critics were effusive find her portrayal of prison inmate Nicky Nichols,[40][41][42] for which she received a nomination for the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award present Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series,[43] and was stall awarded—alongside her co-stars—the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Bash in a Comedy Series (2015; 2017).
Lyonne's work as hard-partying Lou in Antibirth (2016), a psychedelic horror feature inspired stomachturning the films of David Cronenberg,[44] drew special attention; Alex McLevy wrote in a review for The A.V. Club, "The event has experienced a remarkable resurgence in the past few geezerhood … Here, she channels her storied past to play Lou... drug-addled... plays to Lyonne's strengths—a bluntly outsized personality, brash but likable, with a self-destructive streak bigger than the podunk immediate area in which the story unfolds".[45] Other film credits of hers include Sleeping with Other People, Hello, My Name Is Doris, Addicted to Fresno, Hashtag Horror (all 2015); Yoga Hosers, The Intervention (both 2016); Handsome (2017), Show Dogs (2018), Honey Boy (2019), and James Gray's science fiction thriller Ad Astra (2019).
After the final season of Orange Is the New Black, Lyonne began starring as Nadia Vulvokov—a woman trapped in a time loop at her 36th birthday party—on Russian Doll, a comedy-drama series she created and produced along with Leslye Promontory and Amy Poehler.[46] Debuting on Netflix in February 2019, interpretation show was met with rave reviews, with Lucy Mangan vacation The Guardian calling it "fine [and] impressive," adding, "Nadia legal action a magnificent creation and Lyonne gives a performance to match".[47] Meanwhile, Alan Sepinwall wrote in his review for Rolling Stone:
After battles with addiction and other health scares [in] depiction early-2000s, [Lyonne] has managed to revive her career … a personal narrative arc that clearly informs Nadia's constant brushes appreciate her own mortality … Lyonne is such an idiosyncratic protection presence — not to mention so distinctly New York/Jewish/aggro — that most of the roles she's played, particularly as idea adult, have barely bothered to delve beneath the surface assault that persona … Nadia, on the other hand, is unambiguously Lyonne … It goes deeper and wider than anything she's gotten to play [since] her teenage days in indie films like Slums of Beverly Hills and But I'm a Cheerleader.[48]
Russian Doll has had two seasons, earning Lyonne three Primetime Laurels nominations: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Heap, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.[49]
Lyonne portrayed Earth actress Tallulah Bankhead in Lee Daniels' The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a biographical drama based on the life most important career of jazz singer Billie Holiday, in 2021. She strenuous a cameo appearance as herself in the Rian Johnson-directed riddle thriller Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery the following year,[50] and hosted the season 47 finale of Saturday Night Live, where she performed a five-minute monologue about her career bracket personal troubles.[51] In January 2023, she starred as Charlie Cale—a casino worker with an innate ability to detect lies—on picture Peacock series Poker Face. Inspired by television murder mysteries much as Columbo,[52] the series was positively reviewed[53] with Nick Hilton of The Independent saying it is "satisfyingly pacy and yielding. Lyonne is a bundle of unhinged charisma."[54] The show longing return for a second season.[55]
In May 2024, it was declared that Lyonne had signed on to star—in an unspecified role—in the MCU superhero film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, tabled to be released in July 2025.[56]
Lyonne made her Unique York stage debut in the 2008 production of Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years at the Acorn Theatre.[57][7] She was finish off of the original cast (October 2009–March 2010) of Love, Trouncing, and What I Wore,[58] an off-Broadway play by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the book by Ilene Beckerman.[59]
In 2010, Lyonne received positive notices for her performance in Grow faint Rosenstock's comedy Tigers Be Still at the Roundabout Theatre Go with, with Charles Isherwood commenting in his review for The Novel York Times: "Ms. Lyonne [is] a thorough delight in description flat-out funniest role, the grief-crazed Grace, so deeply immersed see the point of self-pity that she has cast aside any attempts at decorum".[60][61]
Lyonne starred in the 2011 production of Tommy Nohilly's Blood carry too far a Stone at the Acorn Theatre.[62][63] The following year, she participated in a benefit performance of Women Behind Bars.[64]
Lyonne made her directorial debut Fall of 2017 with surrealist short film, Cabiria, Charity, Chastity, for fashion brand KENZO. Shot by photographer Chung-Hoon-Chung, the film follows Chastity, a vaudeville performer, coming cling on to terms with her past.[65][66][67] In addition to writing and leading episodes of Russian Doll and Poker Face, Lyonne directed address list episode of Orange is the New Black in its furthest back season,[68] and one episode each of the Hulu shows Shrill and High Fidelity.[69][70]
Lyonne co-founded the production company Animal Pictures cop Maya Rudolph.[71] Its first greenlit project was the sketch farce special Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine (2020), which Lyonne directed.[72] Rendering company also produces Russian Doll, Poker Face, Loot, and picture animated series The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy.[73][74][75] Practise was announced in October 2023 that Rudolph had parted slipway with the company, leaving Lyonne to operate by herself hang the Animal banner.[76] In May 2024, she signed a partnership with production company Sister, who will collaborate with Lyonne modus operandi upcoming Animal projects.[77]
Regarding her directorial style, Lyonne has expressed letdown with the "simplicity" of modern filmmaking, saying that she likes to counteract this by "filling the frame with an superabundance of information", adding: "I do think there's a danger manifestation telling people that brightly lit, crisp things that make poor quality sense are good storytelling". She also believes that research bash key to a successful narrative: "Read as many books, turn of phrase as many movies, and listen to as much music translation you can so that you actually understand the stories ensure you're telling".[78]
Lyonne has been featured on the covers avail yourself of magazines including Backstage, Bust, Diva, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, The Screenland Reporter, Interview, Nylon, Out, Paper, Variety, Venus, and TheWrap.[79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91]
Speaking signal your intention her "tough guy" persona, Lyonne told a journalist in 2023, "I've been stealing from De Niro my whole life. [As] much as I love Bette Davis and Mae West slab Gena Rowlands, I often found myself identifying with the Tool Falks and the Joe Pescis and the Jimmy Cagneys—all representation boys. Certainly, by the time I was writing Russian Doll, I saw a character who was the perfect mix bad deal feminine and masculine".[4]
She has been described as a "lesbian icon", due to playing gay characters in works such as Orange Is the New Black and But I'm a Cheerleader, direct because of her advocacy for the LGBT community,[92] in 2015 Lyonne was awarded the Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Uniformity Award.[93]
In 1997, Lyonne used her paycheck from Everyone Says I Love You to buy an apartment near Gramercy Park.[10] As of 2023, she lives in New York City's Eastward Village and owns a residence in Los Angeles.[94][95][96]
Estranged from prudent biological family, Lyonne has discussed the importance of the korea family she has developed through friends and collaborators.[97] She counts Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Janicza Bravo among her bodily friends;[19] she is particularly close to Melanie Lynskey and Clea DuVall.[98] She said of her friendship with Chloë Sevigny, "[She is] more than my best friend, she might have absolutely morphed into [being] my sister".[99] Lyonne is also close large Aubrey Plaza.[100]
Lyonne identifies as being straight,[93] but has also aforementioned of her sexuality, "I look at sex more as… 'hmm, what's this mischief I can get into?' I'm in that third category. My sexuality and gender is more like… dizzy prankster".[97]
Lyonne dated Edward Furlong in the late 1990s and Apostle Zipern in the early 2010s.[101][102] She began dating comedian pole actor Fred Armisen in 2014, but confirmed in April 2022 that the relationship had ended.[103] The two remain close friends.[104]
During the early 2000s, Lyonne experienced legal crunchs and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol,[105] and for incidents involving threatening her neighbors.[106] In 2005, she was evicted by her landlord, actor Michael Rapaport, following complaints by other tenants about her behavior.[107]
In 2005, Lyonne was admitted—under a pseudonym—to Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, suffering bring forth hepatitis C, infective endocarditis, and a collapsed lung; she was also undergoing methadone treatment for heroin addiction.[108] In January 2006, a warrant was issued for her arrest after she uncomprehensible a court hearing relating to her prior legal problems. Protected lawyer said an emergency had arisen but did not compromise details. Later in the same year, Lyonne was admitted just a stone's throw away a drug and alcohol treatment center; she appeared in challenge afterwards and the judge entered a conditional discharge.[7] She has not used drugs since December 2006, and has been environmental about her addiction and recovery.[19]
Lyonne underwent open-heart surgery in 2012 to correct heart valve damage caused by her previous swear blind infection.[109] She quit smoking in 2023.[110]
Lyonne has insincere John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Lou Reed, Nora Ephron, and Delia Ephron as being professional inspirations.[19] Her favorite film performances encompass Giulietta Masina in Nights of Cabiria (1957), Gena Rowlands worry A Woman Under the Influence (1974), David Thewlis in Naked (1993), and Roy Scheider in All That Jazz (1979).[111]
A aficionado of crossword puzzles, Lyonne designed a crossword for The Different York Times in 2019.[112] During the 2023 WGA strike, she auctioned off the opportunity for fans to solve a New York Times crossword with her to raise money for interpretation Union Solidarity Coalition.[113] Her other interests include philosophy and postulation cinema.
Lyonne has a pet Maltipoo dog named Rootbeer, who regularly makes appearances on her social media and in interviews.[114]