How Natasha Lyonne Went From Child Actor to Indie Darling to Star of ‘Russian Doll’ and ‘Poker Face’

With her delightfully old school New York rasp and eye-catching red curls, Natasha Lyonne is easily one of the quirkiest and most immediately recognizable actresses around, and at 45, she’s now more prominent than ever before. Lyonne has carved out her own niche in Hollywood with her sassy and savvy performances, and to watch her is to wish she was your best friend.

Lyonne has well over 100 film and TV credits to her name, and while she’s always kept busy, her journey hasn’t always been easy, and she’s worked hard to get where she is today. Here’s a look at how she climbed the ladder from child actor to indie It Girl to A-lister.

Natasha Lyonne’s child actor origins

Natasha Lyonne was born and raised in New York (as you can easily tell from her accent and the fact that she so often plays street-smart New Yorkers) and began acting at just 6 years old. Her first prominent role came when she was cast on the children’s show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in 1986.

Like so many former child actors , Lyonne had some regrets about getting into the entertainment industry so early, saying, “ 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 6 years old. I had to become coherent and a businesswoman at 6. By 10, I was a jaded professional. By 16, my youth was over and my goose cooked. I don’t think they knew better. It was a decision of my parents built on hopeful ignorance.”

As a teen, Lyonne appeared in movies like Dennis the Menace (1993), Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and Krippendorf’s Tribe (1998), and in 1998 she had her first starring role in the independent '70s-set coming-of-age film The Slums of Beverly Hills . She earned rave reviews for her performance, and the next year she had a decidedly more mainstream part in the blockbuster teen sex comedy American Pie .

1999 also brought one of Lyonne’s most beloved roles, in the cult-favorite film But I’m a Cheerleader , in which she played the titular cheerleader who ultimately learns to accept her lesbian identity and finds love while at a gay conversion camp.

In the ’00s, Lyonne appeared in the American Pie sequel and films like Scary Movie 2 (2001), Party Monster (2003) and Blade: Trinity (2004), as well as dozens of indie movies.

Lyonne triumphs over hardships

Lyonne may have worked steadily as a young actress in the aughts, but she was privately battling drug addiction, and was arrested for a DUI and evicted from her apartment. In 2005, she reached her lowest point when she was hospitalized for health issues stemming from heroin addiction and almost got arrested again after missing a court hearing arising from her earlier legal troubles.

In 2006, the troubled actress turned herself in and was court ordered to check into rehab. She complied, and later that year, she finally became sober, and she hasn’t touched drugs since then. The drama she went through could have damaged her career for good, but instead it lit a fire in her that hasn’t gone out since.

As Lyonne described in a recent New York Times profile, she did some serious soul-searching while in recovery and “I suddenly saw this sort of path to freedom that was about the life of the mind and curiosity to learn. That suddenly I had something to say, and that there were many tentacles and ways I wanted to say it.” Since this moment of discovery, she’s expanded her horizons considerably, breaking into TV and voiceover work and becoming a producer, director, writer and showrunner.

Natasha Lyonne’s second act

From 2013 to 2019, Lyonne had her second act as a TV star, playing one of the inmates on Orange Is the New Black . She earned an Emmy nomination for her role, and drew on her experience with addiction to bring authenticity to her troubled character.

After Orange Is the New Black ended, the actress had another TV hit with Russian Doll , which ran from 2019 to 2022. The time-looping comedy was a passion project for Lyonne, as she cocreated it and directed a number of episodes.

Russian Doll represented a new era for Lyonne. She explained, “ I’m finally so relaxed . I feel really far from . . . questions about the industry and ‘Is there a place for me here?’ I’m thrilled to be older—I’m thrilled to be done with being a child actor or a teenage actor or a round two, comeback actor. I’m so glad there are so many battles I’ve done in this industry that are now over, and I think I just feel such a relief and, in an artistic community, I think I feel really, deeply moved and supported.”

Lyonne’s era of creativity and contentment as a mature actor is ongoing, and in 2023, she starred in another show, the crime comedy Poker Face . The second season of the show (featuring episodes directed by the star) will air in 2025.

Lyonne’s latest film is the family drama His Three Daughters , in which she takes on a more serious and subdued role than usual as a woman preparing for the death of her father, and she has a number of projects in the works, including roles in upcoming big-budget movies like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and The Smurfs Movie . On top of that, she’s also running her own production company, Animal Pictures. Clearly, Natasha Lyonne has bounced back in a big way, and we’re always excited to see her light up the screen.

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