Natasha Lyonne

Lyonne was born in New York City,[1] the daughter of Ivette Buchinger[1] and Aaron Braunstein, a boxing promoter, race car driver and radio host,[3] distantly related to cartoonist Al Jaffee.[1]

Lyonne's parents were from Orthodox Jewish families, and she was raised Orthodox.[4][5][6] Her mother was born in Paris, France,[7] to Hungarian Jewish parents who were Holocaust survivors.[8][9][10][11][12] Lyonne has darkly joked that her family consists of "my father's side, Flatbush, and my mother's side, Auschwitz."[1] Her grandmother Ella[13] came from a large family. Only she and her two sisters and two brothers survived, which Lyonne credits to their blond hair and blue eyes.[1] Lyonne's grandfather, Morris Buchinger, operated a watch company in Los Angeles. During the war, he hid in Budapest as a non-Jew working in a leather factory.[1]

Lyonne lived the first eight years of her life in Great Neck, New York.[8][14] She and her parents moved to Israel, where Lyonne spent a year and a half. During her stay there, Lyonne participated in the production of the Israeli children's film April Fool, which began her interest in acting.[4][15] Her parents divorced, and Lyonne and her older brother Adam returned to America with their mother.[8] After moving back to New York City, Lyonne attended the Ramaz School, a private Jewish school,[16] where Lyonne said she was a scholarship kid who took honors Talmud classes and read Aramaic. She was expelled for selling marijuana at school. Lyonne grew up on the Upper East Side, where she felt she was an outcast.[1] Her mother moved their family to Miami, where Lyonne attended Miami Country Day School.[17][18] She has not graduated from high school; she left before her senior year to attend a film program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her high school graduation depended on completing her first year at Tisch, but she left the program because she could not pay the tuition.[6]

She attended New York University for a short time, studying film and philosophy.[14]

Lyonne was estranged from her father, who was a Democratic candidate for City Council for the sixth District of Manhattan in 2013,[3][19] and lived on the Upper West Side until his death in October 2014.[20] Lyonne has said she is not close to her mother and has essentially lived independently of her family since age 16.[4]

As a young child, Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency.[21] At the age of six, she was cast as Opal on Pee-wee's Playhouse, followed by film appearances in Heartburn, A Man Called Sarge, and Dennis the Menace. On working as a very young child actor, Lyonne said: "I didn't have the best parents. I don't think they are bad people. Even if they were ready to have children, it is kind of a wacky idea to put your child in business at six years old."[7]

Film

Lyonne at a screening of The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

At age 16, 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, 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 in Shia LaBeouf's autobiographical film Honey Boy.

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

When she was 18, Lyonne used the paycheck from her work on Everyone Says I Love You to buy a small apartment near Gramercy Park.[8] During the early 2000s, Lyonne experienced legal problems and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol,[40] and for incidents involving her neighbors.[41] In 2005 she was evicted by her landlord, actor Michael Rapaport, following complaints by other tenants about her behavior.[42]

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.[43] 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,[44] which could have resulted in sudden death if untreated.[45] She recovered from the surgery and discussed her past health problems on The Rosie Show in March 2012.[46]

Lyonne lives in New York City.[47] She has been in a relationship with Saturday Night Live alumnus Fred Armisen since 2014.[48][49]

• The song "Natasha" from Want One by Rufus Wainwright was written for and about Lyonne.[7]

• Natasha Lyonne at IMDb