Natasha Lyonne

Natasha Lyonne
Born	Natasha Braunstein April 4, 1979 (1979-04-04) (age 30) New York City, New York, United States

Natasha Lyonne (born April 4, 1979) is an American film and television actress.

Early life

Lyonne was born Natasha Braunstein in New York City, the daughter of Yvette Lyonne, a product licensing consultant, and Aaron Braunstein, a native of Brooklyn who worked as a boxing promoter.^[1][2][3] Lyonne grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household and lived in Israel with her family during her childhood;^[4] her maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors.^[1][5] When her parents divorced, Lyonne moved back to New York and lived with her mother and older brother Adam in a one-bedroom apartment. In New York, Lyonne attended Ramaz, a private Jewish school. Her mother then moved to Miami, where Lyonne attended and graduated from Miami Country Day School.

Career

Lyonne began acting at an early age with her first role as "Opal" on Pee-wee's Playhouse. She appeared in the 1990 film A Man Called Sarge during the time her family lived in Israel.

Lyonne is perhaps best known for her roles in the first two American Pie films as the wise-cracking Jessica. She has also appeared in more than 30 other movies, including starring roles in the independent films Slums of Beverly Hills and But I'm a Cheerleader. Lyonne also appeared in Party Monster in 2003, a dramatization of the Michael Alig story. As the character Brooke, Lyonne donned a fat suit and dreadlocks. Another big hit Natasha was in was the Blade Trinity where she played a mother and a blind biologist who created a chemical which when mixed with draculas DNA (blood [ironic]) woud kill all vampires in existance.

After an extended hiatus, Lyonne filmed Goyband in New York City with Adam Pascal, Amy Davidson, Cris Judd, Dean Edwards, Tibor Feldman, and Tovah Feldshuh.

In January 2008, she appeared in a Broadway play, Two Thousand Years.^[6]

Lyonne worked on the thriller 13_(film) with a release date of 2010. Other cast members include Mickey Rourke, Ray Liotta and Jason Statham.^[7]

Lyonne is currently working on dark-comedy/ horror flick All About Evil in San Francisco, which was written by and directed by San Francisco late-night movie host and short film producer Joshua Grannel.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Lyonne dated actor Edward Furlong, whom she met on the set of Detroit Rock City, from 1998 to 2000. She became friends with actor Michael Rapaport in 1997 and later rented an apartment in a building he owned on East 18th Street. In 2005, Rapaport evicted her and wrote an account of the matter in that May's issue of Jane.^{[citation needed]}

Singer and former neighbor Rufus Wainwright wrote a song about her called "Natasha" included on his 2003 album Want One.

In August 2005, the New York Post reported that Lyonne was in Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan under a pseudonym, and had been there for over a month after being transferred from Bellevue Hospital.^{[citation needed]} She reportedly suffered from hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung. She was also undergoing methadone treatment and allegedly had track marks on her body.^[8]

In December 2006, Lyonne appeared in court to face the 2005 charges. A judge sentenced her to conditional discharge. Since then, she has completed four films.^[9]

Filmography

• Heartburn (1986) (uncredited) as Rachel's Niece
• Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986) (TV series) (1986 – 1987) as Opal
• Dennis the Menace (1993) as Polly
• Everyone Says I Love You (1996) as Djuna 'D.J.' Berlin
• Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) as Vivian Abromowitz
• Krippendorf's Tribe (1998) as Shelly Krippendorf
• Modern Vampires (1998) as Rachel
• American Pie (1999) as Jessica
• Detroit Rock City (1999) as Christine
• Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999) as Crystal 'White Girl/Whitie' Van Meuther
• But I'm a Cheerleader (1999) as Megan Bloomfield
• The Auteur Theory (1999) as Rosemary Olson - Finalist
• If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) (TV) as Jeanne
• Plan B (2001) as Kaye
• Fast Sofa (2001) as Tamara Jenson
• Scary Movie 2 (2001) as Megan Voorhees
• American Pie 2 (2001) as Jessica
• The Grey Zone (2001) as Rosa
• Kate & Leopold (2001) as Darci
• Comic Book Villains (2002) as Judy Link
• ZigZag (2002) as Jenna the Working Girl
• Night at the Golden Eagle (2002) as Amber
• Die, Mommie, Die! (2003) as Edith Sussman
• Party Monster (2003) as Brooke
• America Brown (2004) as Vera
• Madhouse (2004) as Alice
• Blade: Trinity (2004) as Sommerfield
• Robots (2005) (voice) as Loretta Geargrinder
• My Suicidal Sweetheart (2005) as Grace
• Tricks of a Woman (2008) as Sally
• The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (2009) as Tracy
• Loving Leah (2009) (TV) as Esther
• Jelly (2009) as Mona Hammel
• Goyband (2009) as Fani
• Outrage (2009) as Molly
• Heterosexuals (2009) as Ellia
• All About Evil (2009) as Deborah
• 13 (2010) as Aileen

References

Spoonful of Sugar - Natasha Lyonne's Sweet Comeback by Shira Levine http://www.heebmagazine.com/articles/view/173

External links

• Natasha Lyonne at the Internet Movie Database
• Mugshot at The Smoking Gun
• Interview at Suicidegirls.com