If you haven't heard about Natasha Lyonne or simply think that you haven't seen this redhead actress in one of the many movies she has made, then you will definitely recognize her raspy voice. I couldn't put a face to her name either, but as soon as I watched an interview, I remembered who she was. It's hard to forget that voice. It kind of reminds me of the voice Jenice had in Friends. You remember that chick yelling "Chandler" all the time, don't you?
Well, Natasha has been making movies for quite a while, and she's still not done. As it turns out, she's been in the movie making business for 38 years now, which is quite a long time. She started appearing on camera as a child actress, and slowly started moving up on the stage. Eventually, she became pretty popular, and more importantly a good actress that made some movies you have definitely watched at least once!
Born in New York
Since we're talking about a well known actress, I easily found a lot of information about her early life. I had no idea that her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. This probably won't mean a lot to you, but I'm mentioning it because she moved to Israel while she was still a kid.
I'm not sure why, but Natasha emigrated to Israel when she was just 8 years old, but the funny thing is that she didn't spend a lot of time there. Actually, she was there for a year and a half, and then, she moved back to the United States. That was because her parents divorced, and she went on to live with her mother and brother.
Anyway, when she returned to the USA, she attended the Ramaz School, which was a private Jewish school. Everything was going great for her. She was a scholarship student who took Talmud classes and read Aramaic. I don't know what the fuck does that mean, but everything went south in her sophomore year when she was expelled for selling weed to her classmates. I definitely didn't expect that.
Natasha grew up on the Upper East Side, but she felt like an outsider there. I'm not sure why, but it might have something to do with the fact that she moved to Israel and back while she was young. Her mother tried to fix a few things by moving the family to Miami, but that didn't do shit! Natasha attended the Miami County Day School for a short period, but she didn't graduate.
In fact, she left the senior year to attend the film program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She studied film and philosophy there. For the first time, she got interested in studying something, but that had pretty much the same outcome as before because she had to leave the program because she couldn't pay the tuition.
Even though she wasn't very good at school, she became pretty great at acting. I guess she got used to it quite early and didn't want to waste time on learning something she had no plan on using in the future!
She had her first role at just 7 years old
Natasha Lyonne was only 7 years old when she was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency. She got the recurring role of Opal on the Pee-Wee's Playhouse. To be honest, I hadn't watched that, but it might be because the show was aired in 1986. That was quite a while ago. She also made her film debut that same year with a small role in the Mike Nichols comedy-drama Heartburn!
Ever since then, she kept on getting new roles, but they weren't big roles in the beginning. She played the supporting role as Polly in Dennis the Menace in 1993. After that, she was cast in Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You in 1996 when she was 16 years old. This role helped her out a lot because just a few years after that, she got the role in the comedy Slums of Beverly Hills.
This was probably the most important role in her career back then. Why? Well, she received positive reviews for the way she portrayed Vivian Abromowitz. Actually, some guy said for The Washington Post that: "Lyonne is marvelous in conveying Vivian's combination of confusion, curiosity, disgust and desire at what body and psyche are going through. After playing a string of people's daughters [in other films], Lyonne really comes into her own here as an actress, registering as a person and not merely someone's little girl."
I could go on with the roles she had got for hours because there really are a lot. I took a quick look at the list of the movies she has made, and I can tell you that there are more than 50 movies and series she had a role in. Some of the roles were pretty important, while the other ones were just guest roles, or something like that.
The thing you should know about Natasha is that she's still making movies. The last movie she made was "His Three Daughters" where she played the role of Rachel. I didn't really look at what that movie was about, but it came out in 2023.
It seems like she's planning on making 3 more movies in 2025, so if you're a fan of this redhead actress, you have a lot to look forward to.
What about her awards?
I'm not just saying that Natasha is a good actress because I like her hair color. No, it's because she really is. If you don't trust me, then maybe you will change your mind after taking a look at the awards she has won and the ones she was nominated for!
Okay, so the first time Natasha was nominated for something was in 1999. She was nominated for 3 awards that year, but she didn't win the award. I think that the awards were for the "Most Promising Actress", "Funniest Scene" and "Breakout Performance". All these awards were for her performance in the Slums of Beverly Hills.
The first time she won an award was in 2000. She got the award for the Best Ensemble Cast for the movie American Pie. Everyone knows this classic, and I'm not even surprised that she got the award.
Over the years, she won 7 awards, and the last one was in 2023. However, during her career that's a couple of decades long, she was nominated for 40 awards. That's quite a lot, wouldn't you agree?
You can find the latest updates on her social media
If you're interested in what Natasha Lyonne is up to, you can just follow her on a couple of social media platforms. It's interesting that she doesn't have a Twitter account, but don't worry, you can find her in 2 other places.
Natasha has a Facebook account, but to be honest, she's not active there. The last post is from 2022, so I wouldn't really count on seeing something new there. However, you can take a look at a few posts from her past to check out what she loves doing in her free time.
You'll have more luck with her Instagram account. However, her posts aren't really that impressive sometimes. Besides posting pictures of herself or with a friend, she posts screenshots of some news articles, promo posts of her upcoming movies, and so on. It's definitely not what you expect to see from an actress.
American actress who's been making movies since 1986
The fact that Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein has been making movies and various shows for over 38 years is impressive alone, but that's not even the best part about her career. She got her first role when she was still a kid, and ever since then, she worked hard to keep getting better and better roles. Natasha made a breakthrough when she was 16 years old and had gotten a role that played an important part in the movie. Ever since then, she started getting a lot more attention and, most importantly, much better roles.
During her career, which has been pretty long, she was nominated for 40 awards, but she won 7 of them. That's still a pretty good accomplishment, especially after finding out that she was nominated for a couple of Emmy Awards. The last movie Natasha has made came out in 2023, but she plans on making more in the future. There should be 3 new movies in the following year, which means she's far from being down with the acting job. However, it's hard to get some information about her upcoming roles because she's not active on social media platforms, so you have to find other ways to get some new information!
