Hey, Summer Campers!
Summer camps have been showing kids the time of their lives for generations upon generations. That means that there are literally millions of adults out there who were once summer campers like you. It’s not really surprising then to think that there are lots of celebrities whom we all know and love today who went to summer camp themselves. 
Natasha Lyonne is one of those famous people. Like a number of her contemporaries like Jon Favreau, Robert Downy Jr., Adam Levine, and Zooey Deschanel, she went to a summer camp called French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts in the western Catskills. She may have even been there at the same time as these other alumni.
She was born in New York City and raised Orthodox Jewish. Natasha’s grandparents on her mother’s side were Hungarian Jewish and were both Holocaust survivors.
Her parents started her at 6 years old in business with the Ford Modeling Agency and she made her way into TV and films. She was cast as Opal for six episodes of ‘Pee-Wee’s Playhouse’ and went on to make appearances in movies like ‘Heartburn,’ ‘A Man Called Sarge,’ and ‘Dennis the Menace’.
In retrospect, she disagrees with her parents’ choice to start her in business at such a young age, but it didn’t last long. Two years later, they moved from Great Neck, New York to Israel and they lived there for a year and a half.
She never cared for growing up on the Upper East Side, so when she came back to the states with her family, they settled in Miami. She was an excellent student enrolled in honor classes, but when her parents got a divorce, it had a horribly negative effect on her school life resulting in eventual expulsion. She did, however, graduate from Miami Country Day School.
Her acting career continued with several TV appearances, like on her camp mate’s show ‘New Girl’ as well as ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Law & Order’. She’s even dabbled in doing some voice work for an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ as well as Cartoon Network’s hit show ‘Steven Universe’. She flexed her voice work back in 2005 as Loretta Geargrinder for the feature film ‘Robots’.
Having received a nomination for the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Natasha has really shown her acting muscle and the world recognizes her talent. She has since appeared in Orange Is the New Black, Russian Doll, and Poker Face.
Throughout struggles and hardships in her life, she’s made her way on the road of success. Summer camp can help teach resilience. How might summer camp help you on your path? You can check out French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts for yourself right here and, as always, thanks for reading.
- John