Natasha Lyonne–director/writer/actor/producer/co-creator of Russian Doll, the Netflix series which earned 13 Emmy nominations in 2019, winning three (for Cinematography, Production Design, Contemporary Costumes)–has joined the filmmaker collective at The Directors Bureau, marking her first global representation as a director for branded content, advertising and music video projects.
Lyonne herself garnered three Emmy nominations for Russian Doll–Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actress and Writing for a Comedy Series. The first of her four career Emmy nominations came in 2014 for her performance as a guest actress (portraying Nicky Nichols) on the Netflix original drama series Orange Is the New Black.
“The Directors Bureau has always valued collaborating with people who have diverse talents in different fields, especially when they have such a strong voice as Natasha’s,” said Roman Coppola, founder of The Directors Bureau. “Natasha is someone with such dynamic, inventive, and outrageous creativity–I’m sure she’s going to make some remarkable, distinctive work, and we can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Lyonne noted, “I’m honored to be joining The Directors Bureau’s impressive body of cutting-edge directors and look forward to collaborating with Roman and his team.”
Lyonne made her directorial debut with the Kenzo short film Cabiria, Charity, Chastity, featuring the fall/winter 2017 collection. She later made a major splash with Russian Doll which in addition to the Emmy recognition received since its premiere in 2019 a Gotham Award nomination, a Golden Globe nod, and made Lyonne a two-time Writers Guild Award nominee (in the Comedy Series and New Series categories in 2020). She continues to showrun, write and direct for the series which returns this year for its second season.
In 2020, Lyonne directed Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine, a comedy/variety special dealing with issues of politics, race, gender and class, and featuring Helen Mirren, Fred Armisen, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Hamm, Aubrey Plaza, Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder and Marisa Tomei, among others. In addition to directing, Lyonne executive produced the special through Animal Pictures, her production company with Maya Rudolph and Danielle Renfrew Behrens. Upcoming, Lyonne will executive produce and star in Rian Johnson’s mystery drama series Poker Face, which has been picked up by Peacock.
In 2019, Lyonne returned as Nicky Nichols in the seventh and final season of Orange Is the New Black for which she also directed an episode. That year, Lyonne also directed and appeared in an episode of Comedy Central’s Awkwafina is Nora From Queens, and directed an episode each of Shrill starring Aidy Bryant and the Hulu series High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz.
