Lauren Lapkus Biography

Lauren Lapkus (born September 6, 1985) is an American actress and comedian, best known for portraying Dee Dee in the NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? and Susan Fischer in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. She has also made appearances on such television shows as Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Middle, Hot in Cleveland, and @midnight. She is also known for her many podcast appearances, including Comedy Bang! Bang!, improv4humans, and her own podcast With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus. She was a main cast member on the TBS original sitcom Clipped.

Early life

Lapkus was born in Evanston, Illinois, of half Lithuanian and half Greek descent. At an early age she would film sketches with her older brother and later at Evanston Township High School she participated in the annual student revue and variety show YAMO.

During her senior year of high school, she began taking improv classes at the iO Theater. She would attend DePaul University graduating in 2008 with a degree in English, while she continued performing improv most nights. Lapkus credits watching a lot of television sitcoms and Saturday Night Live while young with giving her the education to become a comedian.

Upon graduation, she moved to New York City for a year where she got involved with Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. After living in New York for 15 months, she relocated to Los Angeles in 2010.

Career

After almost a year in Los Angeles, Lapkus began landing roles in a number of commercials, including Snickers and Jack in the Box as well as a sketch on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. From these successes, she got herself representation and during pilot season landed a supporting role in the short lived Are You There, Chelsea?.

After self-taping her audition, Lapkus was cast as security guard Susan Fischer on the first and second seasons of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. In 2015, Lapkus and the cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

In 2014, Lapkus launched her own podcast on the Earwolf network, called With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus. The show's premise is that each week her guest is the host of their own podcast, and she is appearing as a character on their show. Her guests have included Paul F. Tompkins, Betsy Sodaro, Andy Daly, Nick Kroll, and Scott Aukerman. She has said that she "never expected to get into podcasts at all" and to her it is funny she has one.

In mid-2014, Lapkus was cast in Jurassic World, which she filmed in both Hawaii and New Orleans. Many of her scenes with Jake Johnson were improvised. In 2015, she portrayed Joy the receptionist in TBS's Clipped. In 2016, Lapkus wrote and starred in her own 30-minute episode of the sketch show Netflix Presents: The Characters.

Lapkus performs improv regularly. She is a cast member of UCB's flagship show Asssscat. She also has a monthly show with her group Wild Horses, alongside Stephanie Allynne, Mary Holland, and Erin Whitehead.

Personal life

Lapkus married actor and improviser Chris Alvarado on May 3, 2014. On February 14, 2016, Lapkus announced on social media that she and her husband had mutually agreed to end their marriage.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Movie Boy	Pamela
2011	Dog DNA		Short film
2011	Secrets, Secrets		Short film
2011	Plastic Heart	Lauren	Short film
2012	Dreamworld	Sushi
2012	Cleve Dixon: Terrible Detective	Barbara Dietrichson
2012	Manhattan Mixup	Agent Smith	Short film
2013	3D Printer		Short film
2013	Are You Here	Delia Shepard
2013	The To Do List	Girl Heckler
2014	Bread and Butter	Deirdre Newsome
2014	Blended	Tracy the Babysitter
2015	Jurassic World	Vivian

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Carpeted Afterhours	Becky	Television film
2010	Jimmy Kimmel Live!	Various	2 episodes
20102011	'	Angie	4 episodes
2011	Video Game Reunion	Luigi's Stalker	3 episodes
2011	'	Various	2 episodes
2012	Are You There, Chelsea?	Dee Dee	12 episodes
2012	Hot in Cleveland	Oscar	Episode: "A Box Full of Puppies"
2013	Joe, Joe & Jane	Melissa	TV pilot
2013-2014	Orange Is the New Black	Susan Fischer	13 episodes Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
2013-2016	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Various	5 episodes
2013	You're Whole	Ellie	Episode: "Lemonade/Fishing/Cupcakes"
2014	House of Lies	Benita Spire	3 episodes
2014-2015	Drunk History	Various	2 episodes
2014	The Hotwives of Orlando	Bank Rep	Episode: "Staycation"
2014	Friends with Better Lives	Deena	Episode: "The Lost and Hound"
2014	Key & Peele	Marion Glass	2 episodes
2015	Kroll Show	Candace	Episode: "The In Addition Tos"
2015	Clipped	Joy	Series regular
2015-2016	Another Period	Penelope	2 episodes
2016	Animals.	Various voices	3 episodes
2016	Netflix Presents: The Characters	Various	Episode: "Lauren Lapkus"
2016	Bob's Burgers	Krissy (voice)	Episode: "Bye Bye Boo Boo"
2016	Adventure Time	Patience St. Pim (voice)	Episode: "Elemental"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Lego Jurassic World	Vivian

Podcasts

Year	Game	Role	Notes
2012-2016	improv4humans	Various	"?30 appearances
2012-2016	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Various	"?33 appearances
2013	The Reality Show Show	Herself	"?Episode 39: "There Is Ninjas"
2013, 2014	Totally Laime	Herself	"?Episode 160: "Let's All Pee" "?Episode 242: "One Hundred Percent!"
2014	Pop My Culture	Herself	"?Episode 154: "Lauren Lapkus and Chris Alvarado"
2014	Professor Blastoff	Herself	"?Episode 175: "Reality TV"
2014	Who Charted?	Herself	"?Episode 202: "Big Ass Wheels"
2014	Hollywood Handbook	Herself	"?Episode 55: "Lauren Lapkus, Our Close Friend"
2014-present	With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus	Various (guest)	"?97 episodes
2015	The Hooray Show with Horatio	Herself	"?Episode 2: "Cereal"
2015	Gilmore Guys	Herself	"?Episode 60: "Lorelai Out of Water"
2015	Never Not Funny	Herself	"?Episode 1615: "Lauren Lapkus"
2015	The Nerdist Podcast	Herself	"?Episode 692: "Lauren Lapkus"
2015	Thrilling Adventure Hour	Various	"?Episode 206: Sparks Nevada, "Martian Orders" "?Episode 208: Beyond Belief, "Stabbin in the Woods" "?Episodes 209-211: April Fools Fun-Around
2015	Box Angeles	Herself	"?Episode 88: "Lauren Lapkus"
2015	The Dead Authors Podcast	Beatrix Potter	"?Addendum vi: Beatrix Potter
2015	Psychic Pshow with Lauren Lapkus	Host	"?4 episodes
2015	Wild Horses: The Perspective	Co-host	"?5 episodes
2015	Sklarbro Country	Herself	"?Episode 267: "Hump The Gun"
2015	SPONTANEANATION with Paul F. Tompkins	Herself	"?Episode 38: "Beautiful, Fancy Apartment in NYC"
2015-2016	Will You Accept This Rose?	Herself	"?2 episodes
2016	You Made It Weird	Herself	"?Episode 297: "Lauren Lapkus"
2016	If I Were You	Herself	"?Episode 209: "Friend Group (w/ Lauren Lapkus!)"
2016	The Longest Shortest Time	Herself	"?Episode 78: "Lauren Lapkus Answers Kids' Unanswerable Questions"
2016	Doughboys	Herself	"?Episode 58: "Pinkberry"
2016	WTF with Marc Maron	Herself	"?Episode 732: "Lauren Lapkus"
2016	I Was There Too	Herself	"?Episode 45: "Jurassic World with Lauren Lapkus"