The Stunning Transformation Of Natasha Lyonne

Natasha Lyonne is a unique performer. She began her career as a child actor, garnered critical acclaim and icon status for her work in indie films in the 1990s, and achieved mainstream success after a brush with death in the 2000s. Lyonne is now an award-winning actor, and an accomplished writer, showrunner, producer, and director. She is beloved for her unmistakable New York accent, her offbeat humor and intellect, and her glorious mane of curly red locks.

Lyonne's rise to fame was not linear, and she had much to overcome. Her backstory is just as fascinating as those of the characters she plays, but her complicated relationship with her parents, and her issues with substances led her to some dark places. But this is Natasha Lyonne, a survivor, an intellectual, and an extremely talented individual. She was bound to rise above her circumstances and become a roaring success. Read on to learn more about the stunning transformation of Natasha Lyonne.

Natasha Lyonne has had an enviable career in show business, and has become a powerhouse in the entertainment industry in recent years. But, she first appeared on the small screen age the young age of six. Lyonne's first acting gig was on the iconic kids' TV show "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" in 1986. She played Opal, a precocious curly-haired kid rocking sunglasses, a hippie headband, and a peace sign necklace.

During a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lyonne noted that her style hadn't changed that much from the time she played Opal. When asked how she landed the job, Lyonne replied with her signature sense of humor, saying, "I walked around the city with my little briefcase, looking for gigs ..." But she added, in all seriousness, "Nothing makes me feel legitimately cool quite so much as the fact that I was on that show."

The one downside? Finding out TV food is not as delicious as it looks. Lyonne recounted being excited to learn she'd be eating ice cream soup, a favorite on the show, only to learn it wasn't real ice cream at all. "I remember being a child and being so perplexed by that giant lie...as I saw it..." Lyonne joked.

Despite her smiley persona on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," Natasha Lyonne's early life wasn't all that fun. She had a difficult relationship with her parents and insinuated that they'd pushed her into acting at a young age. "I was an outgoing child. But I don't know if it was something I would have done by choice," she told The New York Times. Lyonne's father, Aaron Braunstein, was a boxing promoter, and her mother, Ivette Buchinger, was a dancer and professional roller skater. They divorced when Lyonne was young, and she became distanced from them as a teenager, living on her own from the age of sixteen.

In a 2024 interview with Telegraph, Lyonne recalled a time when a reporter called to fact-check something her parents had said. "I remember thinking, 'Oh, really, my parents, those two ­f—— loser con artists, you're telling me they maybe told a lie? Thanks for the revelation, all right, good luck with your fact-checking!' and I hung up the phone," the actor quipped.

Lyonne's parents both died in the early 2010s, which produced complex feelings for her. "I think for so many of us that don't have a clean relationship there, it's really complicated, because of course you're destroyed. You just don't have the tools to do it properly," she explained. She also mentioned crying harder after the deaths of musician Lou Reed and filmmaker Nora Ephron, both of whom she had friendships with, than she did when her parents died.

Natasha Lyonne considers herself to be an intellectual, but school was never really her thing. She attended a Modern Orthodox private school in New York City on a scholarship. However, she was bullied by her classmates and was later kicked out for selling marijuana. Lyonne was still accepted into the prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts, with plans to study filmmaking, but she didn't last long there either. "I dropped out of the filmmaking program at NYU when I was 16 and decided to just watch a bunch of movies at Film Forum and read every book on filmmaking I could get my hands on," she shared with Time.

But her lack of formal education didn't stop Lyonne from becoming a successful film actor. She appeared in Woody Allen's 1996 film, "Everyone Says I Love You," alongside A-listers like Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, and Edward Norton. While Lyonne landed a role in the mainstream hit "American Pie," it was the indie circuit where she really shined.

She starred in "The Slums of Beverly Hills," "Detroit Rock City," and the cult classic LGBTQ+ comedy "But I'm a Cheerleader," which also featured Melanie Lynskey, Clea Duvall, and drag superstar RuPaul. The latter, about teens at a conversion therapy camp, made an impact that resonated with Lyonne. "These kids would be crying and saying, 'Thank you for putting out the film.' And I remain so proud of 'But I'm a Cheerleader,'" the actor shared during a conversation with Lynskey for Variety.

It seemed Natasha Lyonne really hit her stride in the late '90s, but her success was derailed by substance misuse. "Spiraling into addiction is really, really scary," Lyonne told Entertainment Weekly. This wreaked havoc on her life and affected those around her, as she was arrested in 2004 for destroying property and harassing her neighbors at the townhouse where she lived. The home was owned by actor Michael Rappaport who went so far as to pen an article for Jane magazine titled "Evicting Natasha Lyonne.""It's the fallout of shenanigan-based behavior," Lyonne explained.

Shenanigans aside, Lyonne's life took a frightening turn in 2005 when she was hospitalized with hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung. "It's weird to talk about. I was definitely as good as dead, you know? A lot of people don't come back," she said. Luckily, the actor survived the ordeal and completed a court-ordered rehab stint in 2006. Her close friend, actor Chloë Sevigny, stood by Lyonne as she worked through her recovery. "I tried to forgive whatever bad behavior she displayed because she wasn't herself. She wasn't in her right mind," Sevigny revealed.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Natasha Lyonne slowly worked her way back into the spotlight after spending years doing off-Broadway plays and taking on small roles in film and TV. In 2013, she landed the part of Nicky Nichols on the Netflix hit "Orange is the New Black" and became an instant fan favorite. Nicky's brash attitude and clever one-liners were only part of the character. However, her backstory very much mirrored that of Lyonne's. In 2013 the actor spoke to Interview about how she'd been approaching the role. "The reality is, just with my own life experience I definitely have that to draw on...I'm definitely well-versed on what goes on in the mind and the heart of a person who self-destructs as their coping mechanism."

"Orange is the New Black" wrapped up in 2019, and Lyonne expressed gratitude for the experience. She referred to it as "a very healthy way for me to become the person that I was going to be, seven years later," in an interview with IndieWire. Lyonne even got to test out her directing chops for an episode in the show's final season, paving the way for more projects to come.

In 2014, Natasha Lyonne was spotted out and about with "Saturday Night Live" star Fred Armisen. The two were originally introduced by mutual friend Maya Rudolph, although Lyonne didn't remember their first meeting. "I was going through a rocky road, as we know," she told Glamour. Apparently, Armisen and Rudolph stopped by Lyonne's Manhattan apartment where she welcomed them dressed in a silk robe and sunglasses. She autographed a book from her shelf, handed it to Armisen, and said, "Welcome, kid. Fred—what a name. Happy birthday."

Armisen and Lyonne stayed together for eight years before breaking up over their swimming pool preferences. At least that's Lyonne's version of the story. "We love each other just about as much as two people can love each other and we're still talking all the time, but Freddy doesn't like a swimming pool," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. "It might seem like a mundane reason for a breakup, but during that pandemic, you've got to get your laps...So, I got myself a house with a pool out in Los Angeles."

According to Armisen, he and Lyonne are still close. During a 2024 episode of the podcast "Fail Better with David Duchovny," the "SNL" alum said, "That ended well and, like, we're still friends. It made me feel like it was part of getting older that I could approach being in a relationship in a different way."

In 2019, the series "Russian Doll" premiered on Netflix. Natasha Lyonne helped create the show, as well as writing and directing several of its episodes. She's also the show's star, portraying the fictional Nadia Vulvokov, a video game engineer who gets caught in a "Groundhog Day" scenario where she's forced to live the same events over and over again.

While there are parallels between Nadia and Lyonne's lives, the show is not autobiographical. "When we're talking about the autobiography of it all, we're kind of talking about my most deeply personal thoughts and feelings," Lyonne told Business Insider. The emotions may ring true to Lyonne's lived experience, but the details are decidedly unique. "We're not really talking about my outer experience that much. Because, of course, it's very different by virtue of the fact that Nadia's got nothing to do with anything resembling that life," she explained.

Season 2 of "Russian Doll" saw Lyonne take over as showrunner, something she seemed to adapt to with ease. But she admitted to The Los Angeles Times it was a big responsibility. "My job is to see this show from its idea all the way to the finish line," she said. "I'm like meticulously and obsessively in the details of all of it, and experience almost a real relaxation around understanding all of the elements of the day..."

Natasha Lyonne has been very vocal about her love for brainy hobbies, doing The New York Times crossword in particular. Lyonne started doing the daily puzzle while dating Fred Armisen, and she became kind of obsessed after a while. She told The New York Times she even went so far as taking screenshots of crossword clues that struck her as clever. "It's like my version of taking photos of scenery on vacation," she said. "I'm like, 'Look at this great clue! They found a way to get Lenny Bruce in the puzzle!'"

Lyonne was surely delighted to get the chance to create her own crossword for the publication but said she had to do it to be on par with the likes of Bill Clinton, Rachel Maddow, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, each of whom had already had the honor. "We do have a text chain, the four of us. They were constantly ridiculing me for not ever having constructed my own puzzle; this was the only way to keep up," she joked to The New York Times.

The crossword is not Lyonne's only puzzle obsession. In fact, she told Today that she spends up to four hours playing various games to unwind after a long day. Her routine includes Wordle, the New York Times spelling bee, and multiple games of computer chess. "It's very time-consuming," Lyonne explained of her essential routine.

In 2023, Natasha Lyonne followed up the success of "Russian Doll" with "Poker Face," a throwback detective series that she executive produces and stars in. The role of Charlie Cale nabbed Lyonne her second Best Actress Emmy nod (the first was for "Russian Doll") and gave her the opportunity to continue directing, writing, and collaborating with pals like Maya Rudolph, another one of the show's executive producers.

Lyonne's character, Charlie Cale, in "Poker Face" has the ability to tell when somebody is lying, a trait that makes her an excellent, if at times unwilling, sleuth. "As a human being, I'm miffed that we put so much importance on things that are meaningless and so little importance on the things that actually matter about the human experience. I think that's something I really have in common with Charlie," Lyonne told The Hollywood Reporter.

"Poker Face" Season 1 featured guest stars such as Judith Light, Adrien Brody, and Lyonne's friends Chloë Sevigny and Clea Duvall, among others, and Season 2 will feature even more familiar faces. If Lyonne has her way, she might be able to get director Quentin Tarantino to make a cameo. The actor told AP that she had a conversation with Tarantino where he said, "I've always wanted to play a murderer on 'Columbo.'" "Poker Face" has been compared to "Columbo," so fans will just have to wait and see.

In 2023, Natasha Lyonne, notorious for her husky voice, made the decision to quit smoking cigarettes, an experience she told People was "a nightmare." "I'll be honest. It's the worst decision I ever made," the actor and longtime smoker joked. "Of course, my true and deep hope is that the technology will get there such that I'm able to smoke again consequence-free since it's one of the great loves of my life."

But Lyonne admitted she'd begun to notice the effect quitting cigarettes had on her. "I was like, tough for so many years — like leather, sunglasses, chain, smoking, tough guy. And I'm noticing that I'm getting much softer," she shared.

To help quit smoking, Lyonne took up vaping which proved to be yet another difficult habit to kick. In a post on X, she revealed that vaping had her smoking even more: "Pretty sure I'm smoking the equivalent of 40 packs a day now instead of 4. No bueno," she wrote. She wrapped up the post with a mini PSA, saying, "Take it from your grandfather, keep your lungs clean, kids."

When Natasha Lyonne was lamenting her fake ice cream soup on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" at age six, she probably never would have imagined that she'd end up where she is today. Lyonne is surely on a winning streak. In the issue of Time, where Lenone earned a spot on The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 list, filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi wrote, "Natasha is always the coolest person in the room."

As evidenced by her speech at the 2023 Time 100 Gala, that statement feels apt. Lyonne used her time to make some generic comments before revealing that she was actually reading a speech created by ChatGpt. Lyonne went on to display her signature offbeat humor while gently condemning AI, concluding by saying, "So, here's a toast to the preservation of digression and non-sequiturs and everything from vulnerability to vices, i.e., our humanity." Of course, the crowd, made up of her industry peers, loved her, as do her legions of fans. Now, get this girl her actual ice cream soup.