In New York City, Lyonne was born to Ivette Buchinger and Aaron Braunstein, a radio host, race car racer, and boxing promoter who was distantly connected to cartoonist Al Jaffee. Orthodox Judaism was the way Lyonne was brought up because her parents were from Orthodox Jewish homes. Her mother was born to Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivors in Paris, France. “My father’s side, Flatbush, and my mother’s side, Auschwitz,” Lyonne have darkly joked, is how her family is made up. It was a big family for her grandma Ella.
Because of their blond hair and blue eyes, only she and her two sisters and two brothers survived, according to Lyonne. Morris Buchinger, Lyonne’s grandfather, ran a watch company in Los Angeles. During the war, he disguised himself as a non-Jew working in a leather business in Budapest. Lyonne grew up in Great Neck, New York, for the first eight years of her life.
Lyonne moved to Israel with her parents and stayed for a year and a half. During her stay in Israel with her family, Lyonne appeared in the 1989 Israeli children’s film April Fool, which sparked her passion for acting. Lyonne and her older brother, Adam, returned to America after their parents split. Lyonne returned to New York City and attended the Ramaz Institution, an elite Jewish school where she claimed to be a scholarship student who took honors Talmud studies and read Aramaic.
Natasha Lyonne’s top movies and TV shows
Lyonne made her feature film début in 1986, in the uncredited role of Heartburn. She had larger roles in Dennis the Menace (1993), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Detroit Rock City, Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby, and But I’m a Cheerleader (all 1999), Scary Movie 2, The Grey Zone, and Kate & Leopold (all 2000), Scary Movie 3, The Grey Zone, and Kate & Leopold (all 2000), Scary Movie 4, and Kate & Leopol (all 2001)
Natasha Lyonne awards and nominations
Lyonne has been nominated for three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
