Natasha Lyonne

Lyonne at a screening of The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

At 16 years of age, 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,[22] 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).

Lyonne's subsequent 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, and Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie.

In 2019, she appeared alongside Lucas Hedges and Shia LaBeouf in LaBeouf's autobiographical film Honey Boy.[23]

Lyonne at The Paley Center for Media's PaleyFest 2014 honoring Orange Is the New Black

Lyonne made her New York stage debut in the award-winning New Group production of Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years.[4][24]

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.[25]

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".[26][27]

In 2011, Lyonne starred opposite Ethan Hawke and Ann Dowd in New Group's production of Tommy Nohilly's Blood From a Stone.[28][29] The following year, she participated in New Group's benefit performance of Women Behind Bars.[30]

On working in the theater: "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".[29]

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

Since 2013 she has appeared as Nicky Nichols on the critically acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. The role is Lyonne's first television job as a series regular.[31] She received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014,[32] and has twice been 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.[33] 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. More recently 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".[34] Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone called it "brilliant".[35]

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.[36] The surrealist short film was titled Cabiria, Charity, Chastity and starred Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Greta Lee, Leslie Odom Jr., and Macaulay Culkin.[37]

In September 2017, Lyonne's project Russian Doll was given an 8-episode straight to series order by Netflix.[38] The comedy, co-created and executive produced by Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, premiered on February 1, 2019.[39] Lyonne has multiple roles in the series. She is credited as the lead actress and is one of the executive producers of the series with directorial and writing credits.[40]

Lyonne also directed an episode of Orange Is the New Black for its seventh and final season, as well as an episode of Hulu's Shrill titled "WAHAM". [41]

During the early 2000s, Lyonne experienced legal problems and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol,[45] and for incidents involving her neighbors.[46] In 2005 she was evicted by her landlord, actor Michael Rapaport, following complaints by other tenants about her behavior.[47]

In 2005 Lyonne was admitted to Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan under a pseudonym, suffering from hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung; she was also undergoing methadone treatment for heroin addiction.[48] In January 2006 a warrant was issued for her arrest after she missed a court hearing relating to her prior 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.[4]

Lyonne underwent open-heart surgery in 2012 to correct heart valve damage caused by her heart infection,[49] which could have resulted in sudden death if untreated.[50] She recovered from the surgery, and discussed her past health problems on The Rosie Show in March 2012.[51]