Natasha Lyonne mini-bio: Natasha Lyonne (born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, perhaps best known for her role as Jessica in the American Pie movie and its sequel.
Lyonne was born Natasha Braunstein in New York City to Aaron Braunstein, a former boxing promoter and race-car driver, and Yvette Lyonne, a product licensing consultant and former ballerina.
Lyonne grew up in a conservative Jewish household and lived in Israel with her family during her childhood; her maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors.
When her parents divorced, Lyonne moved back to New York and lived with her mom and older brother Adam in a one-bedroom apartment.
Angry and confused over the divorce of her parents, Lyonne hated her high school years and spent time in several schools. She first attended private Jewish school at Ramaz in Manhattan. Natasha's frustration during these years caused her to get into fistfights and skip school in order to be alone and away from peers.
Her mother then moved to Miami, where Natasha attended Miami Country Day School.
At sixteen, she left her mother in Miami and moved back to New York on her own. She later dropped out of school to start making movies.
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 thirty other movies, including starring roles in the independent films "Slums of Beverly Hills" and "But I'm a Cheerleader."
Lyonne also starred opposite Macaulay Culkin in "Party Monster" in 2003, a dramatization of the Michael Alig story. As the character of "Brooke," Lyonne donned a fat suit and dreadlocks.
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.
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 May 2005's issue of Jane magazine. He said problems began in 2003 when Lyonne's heavy partying and harassment of tenants triggered complaints. After her eviction, he went to inspect her apartment and found it trashed.
Singer and former neighbor Rufus Wainwright wrote a song about her called "Natasha" included on his 2003-released album Want One.
On August 28, 2001, Lyonne was arrested by Miami Beach police after hitting a road sign with her rented car and trying to flee the scene. An officer who witnessed the incident said Lyonne refused to take a breathalyzer test and told him, "I'm a movie star. Can I talk to my entertainment lawyer?" Actor Adam Goldberg was riding in the car at the time. Lyonne later pled guilty to driving under the influence and received six months of probation and 50 hours of community service.
In December 2004, Lyonne was arrested after verbally threatening her neighbor, breaking a mirror in the neighbor's apartment, and threatening to molest the neighbor's dog. She spent a night in jail before being arraigned on charges of criminal mischief, harassment, and trespassing. The details of this incident did not become publicly known until two years later. In April 2005, an arrest warrant was issued for Lyonne for failure to appear in court on the charges. Prosecutors say she showed up, but arrived an hour late and only stayed 30 minutes. Police were unable to locate Lyonne until reports of her hospitalization in August.
In January 2006, another arrest warrant was issued for her after she missed another hearing. Lyonne's lawyer said an emergency came up, but he didn't specify.
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. She reportedly suffered from hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung. She was also allegedly undergoing methadone treatment for a heroin addiction and had track marks on her body. The Post also reported that Lyonne had been homeless and on the streets after her eviction by Rapaport. In an interview with Access Hollywood, Lyonne's father denied she was homeless and said he might take legal action against the hospital for breaking the confidentiality of Lyonne's status.
