Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein, better known as Natasha Lyonne, is an American television, theater, and movie actor who is best remembered for her role in the coming-of-age comedy American Pie. She is also a part of the popular Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, and her performance in the show won her a nomination for the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

Early Life
Natasha Lyonne was born to Orthodox Jewish parents on the 4th of April, 1979 in New York City, New York. She was born to a boxing promoter, race car driver, and radio host Aaron Braunstein and his wife Ivette Buchinger, whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Lyonne lived in Great Neck, New York for eight years before her parents and her moved to Israel for a brief period. However, after her parents divorced, her brother Adam and her returned to America with their mother. Upon returning, she attended the Ramaz School, a private Jewish school, but she was expelled for selling marijuana in school. Her family and she then moved to Miami, where she graduated from the Miami Country Day School. Lyonne soon started living by herself at a young age of 18 years after she received her paycheck for her work in the film Everyone Says I Love You, and bought a small apartment of her own near Gramercy Park. She dropped out of NYU's Tisch School where she was studying film and philosophy at age 17.

Personal Life
The actor suffered from Hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung for which she was undergoing methadone treatment at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan in 2005. She also underwent an open heart surgery to correct the damage caused by her heart infection.

Lyonne dated American actor, musician, and former teen idol Edward Furlong in 1998 but the two soon split. The actor then began dating her Detroit Rock City co-star Adam Goldberg, however, their relationship did not last very long. Lyonne has been dating American actor, voice artist, screenwriter, producer, director, singer, musician, and comedian Fred Armisen since 2014.

Television Career
Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency when she was only but six years old and was also cast in the role of Opal in Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in 1986. She made appearances in few episodes of series such as the American sitcom Will & Grace in 2000, the horror anthology series Night Visions in 2001, Grounded for Life in 2002, the American sitcom New Girl in 2011, and crime legal series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2011. However, her most prominent television appearance is her portrayal of Nicky Nichols in the popular Netflix series Orange Is The New Black. Her performance in the series won her a nomination for the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

Movie Career
While she was signed for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in 1986, she was also signed in an uncredited role in the movie Heartburn, which starred Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, in 1986. Lyonne acted in movies like A Man Called Sarge, Dennis the Menace, and Woody Allen’s musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You, before she bagged her first major role in the Slums of Beverly Hills in 1998, for which she won the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards nomination for Most Promising Actress. The movie opened to mainly positive reviews with Lyonne’s performance being well-received by the critics. However, she is best remembered for her role in the coming-of-age comedy American Pie in 1999, where she played the role of Jessica. She next appeared in But I’m a Cheerleader, a satirical romantic comedy, where she played the role of a seventeen-year-old Megan who is a cheerleader and despite having a boyfriend is unsure of her sexuality. She portrayed the role of a lesbian, owing to which the movie received standing ovations at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and has been described as a favorite with gay audiences.

After her performance of a lesbian teenager, Lyonne starred in Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby where she played the role of a fifteen-year-old Crystal "White Girl" Van Meter, who is a prostitute suffering from bulimia. Playing the role of a teenage girl named Megan Voorhees, who becomes possessed by a spirit in comedy horror parody Scary Movie 2 in 2001. She was then seen in American satirical comedy Die, Mommie, Die!, where she played the role of Edith Sussman who detests her mother. In 2004, she was then seen in the David S. Goyer-directed Blade: Trinity co-starring Wesley Snipes, Ryan Reynolds, and Jessica Biel. She was a part of films like Tricks of a Woman, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, My Suicidal Sweetheart, Heterosexuals, Goyband, All About Evil, and He’s Way More Famous Than You.

In 2015, the actor was seen in American romantic comedy Sleeping with Other People, which opened to mixed yet mainly positive reviews. The following year, she was seen in the American comedy-drama The Intervention, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival after which Paramount Pictures acquired its worldwide rights. She was then cast in the American-Canadian horror movie Antibirth, where she plays the role of a hardcore party animal and stoner, who one day begins to experience strange things within herself. Her other projects for 2016 include Yoga Hosers and Adam Green’s Aladdin.