Five-time Emmy®-and two-time Golden Globe®-nominee Natasha Lyonne is a gifted creator who continues to push boundaries as a producer, actor, writer, and director after more than three decades in the industry.
Most recently, Lyonne executive produces, through her production company Animal Pictures, and stars in The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, which premiered on Prime Video in February. The adult animated series follows two alien surgeons: Dr. Sleech and Dr. Klak through their intergalactic escapades and potentially extinction-threatening cases. The series also stars Stephanie Hsu, Keke Palmer, Maya Rudolph, and Kieran Culkin.

Lyonne recently joined Taika Waititi, 3000 Pictures, and Sony’s KLARA AND THE SUN, a theatrical adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name, as the shopkeeper. The sci-fi/dystopian film also stars Amy Adams, Jenna Ortega, Simon Baker, Mia Tharia, and Aran Murphy and is eyeing a fall theatrical release.

She additionally directed the filmed version of comedian Jacqueline Novak’s one-woman show Get On Your Knees, an autobiographical deconstruction of oral sex that was an Off-Broadway hit in 2019. The special premiered on Netflix in January.

Lyonne next appears in Azazel Jacobs’ film His Three Daughters, a bittersweet portrait of three sisters coming together in the wake of their father’s worsening health. Starring alongside Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen, Lyonne’s performance as Rachel is “arguably her best feature work” according to The Daily Beast. The film premiered at TIFF in September 2023 and was acquired by Netflix. Lyonne is gearing up for the second season of her and Rian Johnson’s gritty and clever mystery series Poker Face, which she executive produces under her Animal Pictures banner. In addition to writing and directing an episode of season 1 of the series, Lyonne plays Charlie, a smart-mouthed detective in this episodic anthology series that has a who’s who of guest stars, including Judith Light, Adrien Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Stephanie Hsu. The series premiered on Peacock in January 2023 to rave reviews, specifically calling out her performance, and earned Lyonne her fifth Emmy® nomination for Lead Actress, her second Golden Globe® nomination for Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical, as well as her second Gotham Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a New Series.

Lyonne co-created the Netflix series Russian Doll, which won three Emmy® Awards, a total of 14 Emmy® nominations including Comedy Series and Lead Actress for Lyonne, a Gotham Award nomination, and a Golden Globe® acting nomination for Lyonne after premiering in 2019. She produces, writes, and directs the series, in which she stars alongside Greta Lee, Charlie Barnett, and Chloë Sevigny. She served as showrunner for the second season of Russian Doll which premiered to rave reviews in April 2022, introducing new cast members Annie Murphy, Sharlto Copey, and Carolyn Michelle Smith.

In 2022, Lyonne lent her voice to the animated Warner Bros, DC League of Super-Pets, alongside Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, John Krasinski and Diego Luna. The film is based on characters from DC’s Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Lyonne plays Mertel the turtle, who along with the other super pets, has powers to fight crime after Superman is kidnapped. Previously Lyonne portrayed Tallulah Bankhead opposite Andra Day in her Academy Award® -nominated and Golden Globe®-winning turn as legendary jazz singer, Billie Holiday, in Lee Daniels’ The United States Vs. Billie Holiday for Hulu.

In 2019, Lyonne returned as Nicky Nichols in the seventh and final season of the Netflix original drama series Orange Is the New Black for which she directed an episode. Lyonne directed and appeared in an episode of Comedy Central’s Awkwafina is Nora From Queens. She also directed an episode of Shrill starring Aidy Bryant and an episode of Hulu series High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz. In 2014, Natasha earned an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Orange Is the New Black. Previous television credits include guest stints on Portlandia, Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, The Simpsons, and IFC’s Documentary Now.

Lyonne made her directorial debut with Kenzo's short film Cabiria, Charity, Chastity, featuring the Fall/Winter 2017 collection. She wrote the screenplay for the film which stars Rudolph, Armisen, and Leslie Odom Jr. among others. In 2017, she produced and starred in IFC Midnight’s Antibirth, directed by Danny Perez, co-starring Sevigny. This independent farce horror hybrid which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2016, was released widely in the US in 2016 and in the UK in 2017.

As a young child, Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency, and at the age of six, she was cast as Opal on Pee-wee's Playhouse. She is well known for her acclaimed performances in Slums of Beverly Hills, the beloved comedy directed by Tamara Jenkins, and co-starring Alan Arkin and Marisa Tomei; the coming-of-age comedy, But I’m a Cheerleader, with Clea Duvall and RuPaul; and Everyone Says I Love You. Additional film credits include: The Grey Zone, Sleeping with Other People, Hello, My Name is Doris, Blade: Trinity, Party Monster, James Mangold’s Kate & Leopold, American Pie, America Pie 2, Detroit Rock City, A Futile & Stupid Gesture and Irresistible.

On stage, Lyonne starred alongside Ethan Hawke in The New Group’s darkly comic Off-Broadway production of Blood from a Stone, written by Thomas Nohilly and directed by Scott Elliott. Lyonne earned critical acclaim for her adept portrayal of the couch-ridden, heartbroken Grace in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Tigers Be Still, written by Kim Rosenstock and directed by Sam Gold. In 2019, Lyonne co-presented Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees with executive producer Mike Birbiglia. The comedy was shown at The Cherry Lane Theatre and received rave reviews. Natasha’s other stage credits include roles in Love, Loss, and What I Wore, an intimate collection of monologues and stories by Delia and Nora Ephron, and the familial drama, Two Thousand Years, directed by Scott Elliot and written by the legendary Mike Leigh.