Biography

Natasha Lyonne is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated producer, actor, writer, and director.

Lyonne co-created Netflix series Russian Doll (2019), which received three Emmy awards, a total of 13 Emmy nominations including Comedy Series and Lead Actress for Lyonne, a Gotham Award nomination, and a Golden Globe acting nomination for Lyonne after premiering in 2019. She is showrunner and writes and directs for the series, in which she stars alongside Greta Lee, Charlie Barnett, and Chloë Sevigny.

Lyonne directed the October 2020 Netflix comedy special, Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine (2020), a variety special dealing with issues of politics, race, gender, and class and featured Helen Mirren, Fred Armisen, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Hamm, Aubrey Plaza, Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder, and Marisa Tomei, among others. In addition to directing, Lyonne executive-produced the special through Animal Pictures, her production company with Maya Rudolph and Danielle Renfrew Behrens. Animal Pictures is developing and producing a slate of original content, including the half-hour series Desert People, which Lyonne co-created with Alia Shawkat and Apple TV+'s upcoming comedy series starring Rudolph, created by Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard.

Lyonne portrayed Tallulah Bankhead opposite Andra Day in her Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning turn as legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in Academy Award nominee Lee Daniels's The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021). The biopic was released by Hulu in February 2021.

In 2019, Lyonne returned as Nicky Nichols in the seventh and final season of the Netflix original drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013), for which she also directed an episode. Lyonne directed and appeared in an episode of Comedy Central's Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens (2020). She also directed an episode of Shrill (2019), starring Aidy Bryant, and an episode of Hulu series High Fidelity (2020), starring Zoë Kravitz.

Lyonne made her directorial debut with Kenzo short film Cabiria, Charity, Chastity (2017), featuring the Fall/Winter 2017 collection. She wrote the screenplay for the film, which stars Rudolph, Armisen, and Leslie Odom Jr., among others. In 2017, she produced and starred in IFC Midnight's Antibirth (2016), directed by Danny Perez, co-starring Sevigny. This independent farce horror hybrid, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, was released wide in the US in 2016, and released in the UK in 2017.

In 2014, Lyonne earned an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Orange Is the New Black (2013). Recent television credits include guest stints on Portlandia (2011), Girls (2012), Inside Amy Schumer (2013), The Simpsons (1989), and IFC's Documentary Now! (2015).

As a young child, Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency and at the age of six, and she was cast as Opal on Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986). She is well-known for her acclaimed performances in Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), the beloved comedy directed by Tamara Jenkins and co-starring Alan Arkin and Tomei; the coming-of age comedy But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), with Clea DuVall and RuPaul; and Everyone Says I Love You (1996). Additional film credits include The Grey Zone (2001), Sleeping with Other People (2015), Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015), Blade: Trinity (2004), Party Monster (2003), James Mangold's Kate & Leopold (2001), American Pie (1999), American Pie 2 (2001), Detroit Rock City (1999), A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018), and Irresistible (2020).

On stage, Lyonne starred alongside Ethan Hawke in The New Group's darkly comic Off-Broadway production of Blood From a Stone, written by Tommy Nohilly and directed by Scott Elliott. Lyonne earned critical acclaim for her adept portrayal of the couch-ridden, heartbroken Grace in the Roundabout Theatre Company s production of Tigers Be Still, written by Kim Rosenstock and directed by Sam Gold. In 2019, Lyonne co-presented Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees with executive producer Mike Birbiglia. The comedy showed at the Cherry Lane Theatre and received rave reviews. Lyonne's other stage credits include roles in Love, Loss, and What I Wore, an intimate collection of monologues and stories by Delia Ephron and Nora Ephron, and the familial drama Two Thousand Years, directed by Scott Elliot and written by the legendary Mike Leigh.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Four-time Emmy and Golden Globe-nominee Natasha Lyonne is a gifted creator who continues to push boundaries as a producer, actor, writer and director after more than three decades in the industry.

Lyonne co-created the Netflix series Russian Doll, which won three Emmy Awards, a total of 14 Emmy nominations including Comedy Series and Lead Actress for Lyonne, a Gotham Award nomination and a Golden Globe acting nomination for Lyonne after premiering in 2019. She produces, writes and directs the series, in which she stars alongside Greta Lee, Charlie Barnett and Chloe Sevigny. The second season of Russian Doll premiered on April 20 and introduces new cast members Annie Murphy, Sharlto Copey and Carolyn Michelle Smith.

Lyonne most recently lent her voice to the animated Warner Bros, DC League of Super-Pets, alongside Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, John Krasinski and Diego Luna, out July 29, 2022. The film is based on characters from DC's Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Lyonne plays Mertel the turtle, who along with the other super pets, have powers to fight crime after Superman is kidnapped.

Lyonne is currently in production on Rian Johnson's gritty and clever mystery series Poker Face, in which she stars and executive produces. Lyonne plays Charlie, a smart-mouthed detective in this episodic anthology series that has a who's who of guest stars, including Chloe Sevigny, Adrien Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Stephanie Hsu. It will premiere on Peacock in 2023.

Additionally, Lyonne will join Ricky Gervais, Jemaine Clement, JB Smoove, Anthony Ramos and Zach Woods to lend her voice to Bron Digital's new animated series Fables. In this series classic fables, such as The Tortoise and The Hare, The Lion and The Mouse and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, will be given a modern-day twist.

Along with Maya Rudolph, Lyonne launched Animal Pictures in 2018 with veteran independent producer Danielle Renfrew Behrens, which is currently in a first look deal with Apple TV. Through Animal, Lyonne produced and directed the Netflix special Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine and in April 2022 their first feature, Crush, premiered on Hulu. Animal debuted its first documentary, Sirens, to rave reviews at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and most recently produced Loot, a half-hour comedy series starring Rudolph, with weekly episodes now on Apple TV +.

Projects in development include Amazon's sci-fi animated show The Hospital created by Cirocco Dunlap, which was recently picked up by Amazon for two seasons, TBS's Extra Ordinary based on Mike Ahern & Enda Loughman's Irish indie feature of the same name, and Desert People - a show that Lyonne created with Alia Shawkat - inspired by Alia's real life.

Previously Lyonne portrayed Tallulah Bankhead opposite Andra Day in her Academy Award -nominated and Golden Globe-winning turn as legendary jazz singer, Billie Holiday, in Lee Daniels' The United States Vs. Billie Holiday for Hulu.

In 2019, Lyonne returned as Nicky Nichols in the seventh and final season of Netflix original drama series Orange Is the New Black for which she directed an episode. Lyonne directed and appeared in an episode of Comedy Central's Awkwafina is Nora From Queens. She also directed an episode of Shrill starring Aidy Bryant and an episode of Hulu series High Fidelity starring ZoÎ Kravitz.

Lyonne made her directorial debut with Kenzo short film Cabiria, Charity, Chastity, featuring the Fall/Winter 2017 collection. She wrote the screenplay for the film which stars Rudolph, Armisen, and Leslie Odom Jr. among others. In 2017, she produced and starred in IFC Midnight's Antibirth, directed by Danny Perez, co-starring Sevigny. This independent farce horror hybrid which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2016, was released wide in the US in 2016 and in the UK in 2017.

In 2014, Natasha earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Orange Is the New Black. Previous television credits include guest stints on Portlandia, Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, The Simpsons and IFC's Documentary Now.

As a young child, Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency and at the age of six, she was cast as Opal on Pee-wee's Playhouse. She is well known for her acclaimed performances in Slums of Beverly Hills, the beloved comedy directed by Tamara Jenkins, and co-starring Alan Arkin and Marisa Tomei; the coming-of age comedy, But I'm a Cheerleader, with Clea Duvall and RuPaul; and Everyone Says I Love You. Additional film credits include: The Grey Zone, Sleeping with Other People, Hello, My Name is Doris, Blade: Trinity, Party Monster, James Mangold's Kate & Leopold, American Pie, America Pie 2, Detroit Rock City, A Futile & Stupid Gesture and Irresistible.

On stage, Lyonne starred alongside Ethan Hawke in The New Group's darkly comic Off-Broadway production of Blood from a Stone, written by Thomas Nohilly and directed by Scott Elliott. Lyonne earned critical-acclaim for her adept portrayal of the couch-ridden, heartbroken Grace in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Tigers Be Still, written by Kim Rosenstock and directed by Sam Gold. In 2019, Lyonne co-presented Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees with executive producer Mike Birbiglia. The comedy showed at The Cherry Lane Theatre and received rave reviews. Natasha's other stage credits include roles in Love, Loss, and What I Wore, an intimate collection of monologues and stories by Delia and Nora Ephron, and the familial drama, Two Thousand Years, directed by Scott Elliot and written by the legendary Mike Leigh.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Contributor