Natasha Lyonne - Film & Theater Personalities, Timeline and Childhood

Natasha Lyonne was born in New York City on April 4, 1979 to Ivette Buchinger and Aaron Braunstein. Her father was a boxing promoter. He also drove race cars and hosted radio shows during his spare time.

Lyonne’s mother was born in Paris to holocaust survivors and later migrated to the USA. Her family had interests in arts and the famous cartoonist Al Jaffee was her father’s distant relative.

Her family was of Jewish origin and both her parents had orthodox Jewish beliefs. Lyonne too was raised as an orthodox Jew.

For the first eight years of her life, she was raised in Great Neck area of New York City. Her family then migrated to Israel. A year and half after migrating to Israel, her parents got divorced. Lyonne and her brother then moved back to the USA along with their mother.

Lyonne attended the famous private Jewish School in New York City, The Ramaz School. She was a good student and received scholarship all through her school. She took honors Talmud classes and read the Aramaic language eagerly during her school days.

Disturbances in her family made her a drug addict at a younger age. She was expelled from school after getting caught selling pot. As it got difficult for Lyonne to continue her education in New York, her mother moved the family to Miami where she graduated from Miami Country Day School.

She did not have contacts with her father till he died in the year 2014. In an interview given to a newspaper, Lyonne said that she was not so close to even her mother and had mostly lived independently from the age of 16.

She did not attend college after graduating from school as she started exploring opportunities to act in movies. But after she made some money in movies, she briefly attended the New York University for a brief time for studying film and philosophy.

Lyonne got opportunities in modeling at a young age of six. She was cast as Opal in Pee-wee’s Playhouse. She also appeared in movies like ‘Heartburn’, ‘Dennis the Menace’, and ‘A Mann called Sarge’. Her career did not move much beyond these minor appearances.

When she was sixteen, she was cast in Woody Allen’s romantic hit, ‘Everyone Says I Love You’. She was critically applauded by the critics for her performance in the movie.

Over the next 10 years, Lyonne worked in a number of movies and some of them are ‘Detroit Rock City’, ‘The Grey Zone’, ‘Blade: Trinity and Scary Movie 2’.

Lyonne acted in Indie (Independent) movies like ‘Slums of Beverly Hills’ and ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’. She liked independent movies as they offered her a variety of roles when compared with the regular commercial movies produced by big studios.

After ‘Every One Says I Love You’, she also made television appearances on some popular television shows like NBC’s ‘Will and Grace’.

Starting in the year 1999, Lyonne acted in ‘American Pie’ Series movies. These movies targeted the young population and made Lyonne famous around America.

After studying film and philosophy in the New York University, Lyonne developed interest in theatre. She acted in plays showed in New York and other cities. Some of the plays in which she acted were ‘Women Behind the Bars’, ‘Two Thousand Years’, and ‘Love, Loss, and What I Wore’.

After her role in ‘Will and Grace’, Lyonne made several guest appearances in TV shows like’ Weeds’, ‘New Girl’, and ‘Law & Order Special Victims Unit’. She got a role in Netflix’s acclaimed TV series ‘Orange is the New Black’. Lyonne appeared in all the seasons of the show produced till date.

In the year 2014, Lyonne got a role in NBC comedy ‘Old Soul’. Lyonne also lent her voice to characters targeted at children like Smoky Quartz in Cartoon Network’s show ‘Steven Universe’.

’American Pie’ series of movies and ‘Orange is the New Black’ continue to be the major works of Lyonne. While the former made her a darling of teenagers and young adults, the later made her a star among women.

In the year 1999, she got the Chicago Film Critics Association Award in the ‘Most Promising Actress’ category and the Teen Choice Awards under the ‘Breakout Performance Category’. She won both awards for her performance in the move ‘Slums of Beverly Hills’.

In the year 2000, Lyonne reveived the Young Hollywood Awards in the ‘Best Ensemble Cast’ for the movie American Pie.

Lyonne was presented the Best Supporting Female Actor award for her performance in the movie ‘Tricks of Love’ at the Monaco International Film Festival (for the year 2008).

In the year 2014, Lyonne received her first Primetime Emmy nomination for her performance in ‘Orange is the New Black’.

In the year 2017, she was awarded the Best Actress Award in the 2017 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for her performance in ‘Antibirth’.

Lyonne has faced a number of legal issues due to alcohol and drug use. In the early 2000s, she suffered from alcohol addiction and was arrested by police for driving under the influence of alcohol. She was also evicted by her landlord in the year 2005 for her abusive behavior.

Lyonne has also suffered from health issues. In 2005, she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, heart infection, and a damaged lung. She was hospitalized for several months and underwent an open heart surgery to correct the damage caused to her heart through infection.

Lyonne is in a relationship with the star of Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen since the year 2014.

While some actors think of getting roles at an early stage in life as a blessing, Lyonne felt that her parents exploited her by making her work at the age of just six.