Natasha Lyonne's Famous Friends (And What They've Had To Say About Her)
Natasha Lyonne established herself as lovable right out the gate when she appeared on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" way back in 1986. 6-year-old Lyonne played Opal, styled like a miniature hippie, a headband tied around her signature red curls. She was charming and adorable and was bound for fame.
She went on to star in many '90s films, such as "Slums of Beverly Hills," "American Pie," and "But I'm a Cheerleader." After some time off and some reckoning with personal issues, Lyonne burst back on the scene with her Emmy-nominated performance as tough-talking former addict with a heart of gold, Nicky Nichols, in "Orange is the New Black." She is now a director and a producer, starring in such critically acclaimed series as "Russian Doll" and "Poker Face." When Lyonne hosted the 2022 season finale of "Saturday Night Live," it was clear she'd become a bona fide star.
But fans and critics are not the only ones with love for Natasha Lyonne. Her peers in Hollywood not only support and admire her, but they also count her as one of their very best friends. Lyonne has collaborated with many of her pals on major projects; she's stayed close with her ex and even mended fences with one famous former landlord. Here are some of Natasha Lyonne's famous friends, and it seems everyone has something nice to say about our favorite red-headed, raspy-voiced, quintessential New Yorker.
Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne work well together
Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph have been super tight for decades. Rudolph, of "SNL and "Bridesmaids" fame, recalled meeting Lyonne in the early 2000s. "I met her, actually, when I first moved here to do 'SNL.' She was one of my first non-'SNL' friends," she said in an interview on "Late Night with Seth Myers." "I think it was with Jimmy [Fallon] ... and this little person came up to me and was like, 'Hey, you wanna be in a fashion show?' ... We were instantly friends ... she's so funny, and she's such a joy."
The pair even lived together for a while at the beginning of their friendship, and Rudolph says they had a great time as roommates. "Natasha is a very nurturing and loving soul, quite easy to live with. She's also a lot more fun than I am, so she definitely drags me into more fun experiences than I would tend to involve myself in ... we were really enjoying our youth," she told The New Yorker.
Lyonne and Rudolph started a production company together in 2018 called Animal Pictures. The company is behind both "Russian Doll" and "Poker Face," two acclaimed series in which Lyonne stars. Lyonne explained to The New Yorker how the friendship is conducive to creativity. "When I'm with Maya, I instantly feel like my child self is complete ... the two of us could be hanging out, and we could be like 8 years old, or we could be 40 ... When I'm with Maya, I feel very safe and seen."
Clea Duvall is super proud of her friend
Natasha Lyonne and Clea Duvall have been best friends ever since they starred together in the 1999 cult classic film "But I'm a Cheerleader." Duvall, who has been working steadily as an actor since the 90s, appearing in everything from indie films to TV hits like "Veep," has stepped behind the camera as well. She made her directorial debut in 2016 and made her BFF Lyonne proud.
"Clea DuVall –- my best friend of 20 years –- wrote, directed, starred and produced her first feature, 'The Intervention,' ... Now, we get to go [to Sundance] in a filmmaker capacity," Lyonne told Variety. "The last time we were all there, it felt like we were young actresses. Now, I feel like we've grown up and have a lot going on behind the scenes, which feels pretty great, I have to say."
Duvall credits Lyonne with supporting her in all her endeavors, and it's clear the friendship means a lot to the two. In a conversation with Lyonne for Interview, Duvall said, "It's really inspiring to have you as a sounding board and to be your sounding board. I'm just so proud of us. When we were those little delinquents, who knew?"
Amy Poehler considers Natasha Lyonne family
Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler are another friendship duo that has been around since the early aughts. Lyonne and Poehler met through Poehler's "SNL" buddies, and the two are still going strong. The pair are responsible for creating the Netflix series "Russian Doll" together, and Lyonne described how it came to be on an episode of "The Tonight Show." She told Jimmy Fallon that Poehler called her and said, "Hey, I just wanted to say, as long as I've known you, you've always been the oldest girl in the world." The conversation led to an idea for a show called "Old Soul." "And so we made that show ... it didn't get picked up, but then we made 'Russian Doll,'" Lyonne explained.
Season 2 of "Russian Doll" deals with themes of family, and Poehler had something very sweet to say about Lyonne during an interview on "Today." "Natasha and I are hopefully an example of what chosen family looks like. You choose the people that are supposed to be in your life, and people that are in Natasha's life know that they love her deeply, and she loves deeply."
Tracee Ellis Ross loves the real Natasha Lyonne
Natasha Lyonne and "Black-ish" star Tracee Ellis Ross are buddies who have also worked together. The two performed in a 2017 production of Nora Ephron's play, "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," and also starred together in a short for Funny or Die called "Book Club Mafia." Ross gushed over Lyonne during a 2023 red-carpet interview with ET Online. The host asked Ross to name her favorite role that Lyonne has played, and she replied, "The living one! The real thing. I'll take all the ones on the camera, on the screen, but this one, that's the best version."
"It makes me emotional. It's the best part of doing all this, you know," Lyonne said in response. "You get these close friends, and you work with them, and then you love them, and then they're around for life." It seems Lyonne has a knack for making and keeping amazing friends!
Michael Rapaport says Natasha Lyonne is a good person
Natasha Lyonne and actor Michael Rapaport have a rocky past, to say the least. Rapaport was once Lyonne's landlord, and it didn't go so well. He wrote about the experience in a 2005 article in the now-defunct Jane magazine titled "Evicting Natasha Lyonne." "People were going in and out of the apartment, [one of the tenants] was telling me about the late-night parties, and random dudes sprawled out on her sofa at all times. [Another tenant] had a little dinner party. Natasha was screaming up at them throughout the party," he wrote.
Lyonne had been going through a difficult time and was able to look back on the experience with empathy. "At the time, I didn't understand, but now it's like, if I owned a nice brownstone — and [someone] was constantly moving pianos while listening to Richard Pryor CDs, and trying to figure out how to play 'Easy Like Sunday Morning' on the piano for days at a time — I would potentially be pissed too. It's the fallout of shenanigan-based behavior," she told EW.
Rapaport has since praised Lyonne and spoken about the status of their friendship. "We're totally reconciled, we're good friends, and she's like a sister to me. So we're cool," he said on a "Watch What Happens Live After Show" in 2016 (via Bravo TV). "And she's good people, and she's a solid person and a great actress. She got good hair."
Lyonne even impersonated her former landlord when she hosted "SNL" in 2022. Even though the sketch was cut for time, it has made the rounds online, and we like to think Lyonne's former landlord enjoyed the ribbing. The audience sure did!
Fred Armisen and Natasha Lyonne are better as friends
Natasha Lyonne dated Fred Armisen from 2014 until 2021. The two were introduced by Armisen's "SNL" co-star and Lyonne's pal Maya Rudolph. While the pair had a good run, they eventually broke up during the COVID pandemic. Lyonne told The Hollywood Reporter, "I honestly think we broke up because I wanted a swimming pool. We love each other just about as much as two people can love each other, and we're still talking all the time, but Freddy doesn't like a swimming pool. It might seem like a mundane reason for a breakup, but during that pandemic, you've got to get your laps."
It is heartening to see that Lyonne and Armisen, who recently appeared as Uncle Fester in the Netflix hit "Wednesday," have indeed remained close friends. When Lyonne hosted the 2022 season finale of "SNL," Armisen and Rudolph both stopped by to make their Natasha Lyonne impressions during her monologue. Lyonne then joked, "You know, Freddy and I dated for seven years. We're the only couple who had a sex tape nobody wanted to buy." We love to see exes getting along!
Chloë Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne have a sisterly love
Natasha Lyonne and Chloë Sevigny are truly best friend goals. The two actors met in the '90s and have only gotten closer over the years. "Ultimately, Chloë and I, you know, are more like sisters in a way, even more than friends," Lyonne told People. "And maybe it's an evolution. Sometimes we're friends; sometimes we're sisters."
Aside from their sisterly bond, the two also have their work in common. They often turn to each other for guidance, and they've appeared in several projects together, including "Russian Doll" and "Poker Face." "We've been kind of having this working friendship, you know, for many years now," Sevigny said in the People interview. "[Lyonne is] the first person I call when I get an offer to talk to her about the material about the other people involved. She sets the bar for me and helps me with a lot of decision-making."
Sevigny has said she could remember the first time she met Lyonne and that it was akin to love at first sight. "She had so much fire in her. I didn't find many actresses, early in my career, that I identified with," she told The New York Times. "But Natasha and I were interested in a lot of the same things, and there was a deeper connection. It was like, 'That's my person.'"
The cast of OITNB shows up for each other
Natasha Lyonne's major comeback role was as Nicky Nichols in "Orange is the New Black," and her character arc mirrored some of her real-life experiences. For the actor, being part of the ensemble cast allowed her to experience some of what she'd missed out on in her life. "It was seven years of just, 'Oh, this is maybe what going to college and making friends would have been like.' That these are now my people for life." she told Harper's Bazaar.
In 2019 Lyonne spoke to IndieWire about her "OITNB" castmates. "We're very tight. Not a day goes by where I'm not in touch or FaceTiming, texting, or something with Uzo [Aduba], Samira [Wiley], Danielle [Brooks], Taylor [Schilling]. I've spent some of the holidays with Kate Mulgrew. We're really a pretty tight tribe."
And they seem to have stayed pretty tight. Lyonne reunited with castmate Dascha Polanco for both "Russian Doll" and "Poker Face." Kate Mulgrew, who played Nicky Nichol's prison mom, Red, on "OITNB" came to the premiere of "Russian Doll" along with other cast members and took to social media to praise Lyonne's work. "I saw Natasha Lyonne's astonishing turn in Russian Doll ... I sat among my 'Orange' crew at the premiere, gazing in admiration and pride at one of our own in a singular display of outrageous talent," Mulgrew said in a Facebook post. It seems everyone loves and is proud of Natasha Lyonne, and we count ourselves among them!