45 facts about actress Natasha Lyonne

Lyonne lived on her own since she was 16. Learn 45 facts from life and career of actress Natasha Lyonne.

1. As a young child, Lyonne was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency.

2. At the age of six, she was cast as Opal on Pee-wee's Playhouse.

3. Had a film appearances in Heartburn, A Man Called Sarge, and Dennis the Menace.

4. On working as a very young child actor, Lyonne said: "I didn't have the best parents. I don't think they are bad people. Even if they were ready to have children, it is kind of a wacky idea to put your child in business at six years old."

5. Lyonne was born in New York City, New York.

6. She is the daughter of Ivette and Aaron Braunstein, a boxing promoter, race car driver, and radio host.

7. Her father was distantly related to cartoonist Al Jaffee.

8. Lyonne's parents were both from Orthodox Jewish families.

9. She herself was raised Orthodox.

10. Her mother was born in Paris, France, to Hungarian Jewish parents who were Holocaust survivors.

11. Lyonne sometimes darkly jokes that her family consists of "my father's side, Flatbush, and my mother's side, Auschwitz."

12. Her grandmother Ella came from a large family, but only she and her two sisters and two brothers survived, which Lyonne credits to their blonde hair and blue eyes.

13. Lyonne's grandfather, Morris Buchinger, operated a watch company in Los Angeles. During the war, he hid in Budapest as a non-Jew working in a leather factory.

14. Lyonne spent the first eight years of her life living in Great Neck, New York.

15. She and her parents moved to Israel, where Lyonne spent a year and a half.

16. Has older brother Adam.

17. Her parents divorced, and Lyonne and her older brother Adam returned to America with their mother.

18. After the move back to New York City, Lyonne attended Ramaz School, also known as The Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Upper School of Ramaz, a private Jewish school, where Lyonne said she was a scholarship kid who took honors Talmud classes and read Aramaic.

19. She was expelled for selling marijuana at school.

20. Lyonne grew up on the Upper East Side, where she felt she was an outcast.

21. Her mother then moved their family to Miami, where Lyonne graduated from Miami Country Day School.

22. Lyonne was estranged from her father, who lived on the Upper West Side.

23. Lyonne has said she is not close with her mother and has essentially lived independently of her family since age 16.

24. When she was 18 years old, Lyonne used the paycheck from her work on the Woody Allen film, Everyone Says I Love You to buy a small apartment near Gramercy Park.

25. She attended New York University for a very short time, studying film and philosophy.

26. Her full name is Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein, better known as Natasha Lyonne.

27. She is best known for her role as Jessica in the American Pie series and her appearances in the films Everyone Says I Love You, Slums of Beverly Hills, But I'm a Cheerleader, and Blade: Trinity.

28. She portrays Nicky Nichols in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.

29. For her role of Nicky Nichols she received a nomination for the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

30. When she was 16, Woody Allen cast her in Everyone Says I Love You, which led to appearances in almost 30 films over the next 10 years, including starring roles in the independent films Slums of Beverly Hills and But I'm a Cheerleader.

31. Lyonne's other films include Detroit Rock City, Scary Movie 2, The Grey Zone, Kate and Leopold, Party Monster, and Blade: Trinity.

32. She has also made television appearances on shows such as NBC's Will and Grace.

33. Lyonne has worked steadily in the New York theatre scene, as well as in film and television.

34. Her newer film appearances include All About Evil, 4:44 - Last Day on Earth, Girl Most Likely, The Rambler, and Clutter.

35. Lyonne made her New York stage debut in the award-winning New Group production of Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years.

36. Lyonne was in the original cast of the award-winning Love, Loss, and What I Wore, a play written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron and based on the book by Ilene Beckerman.

37. She received positive reviews for her performance in Kim Rosenstock's comedy,Tigers Be Still at the Roundabout Theatre Company: "a thorough delight in the flat-out funniest role, the grief-crazed Grace, so deeply immersed in self-pity that she has cast aside any attempts at decorum."

38. In 2011, Lyonne was in Tommy Nohilly's Blood From a Stone, from the New Group. Lyonne participated in New Group's benefit performance of Women Behind Bars in 2012.

39. On working in the theater: "There's something about theater that squashes the self-critical voices because you have to be in the moment. I'm glad that I didn't do this before I was ready, before I was capable of showing up every day. That is not a skill set I had before."

40. Lyonne has made guest appearances on the series Weeds, New Girl, and Law & Order Special Victims Unit.

41. She received her first Primetime Emmy nomination for the role in 2014.

42. Lyonne was cast in Amy Poehler's NBC comedy pilot Old Soul in 2014. The pilot also stars Ellen Burstyn and was directed by David Wain. Poehler was writer and executive producer.

43. Lyonne lives in New York City.

44. Has lived on her own since 16.

45. Is a long-time friend of Chloë Sevigny.