‘Russian Doll’s Natasha Lyonne To Direct Awkwafina TV Series, ‘Shrill’ & ‘High Fidelity’ Reboot

Antonia Blyth

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Natasha Lyonne is set to direct an episode of Comedy Central’s as-yet-untitled Awkwafina project. This immediately follows Lyonne’s stint helming an episode of Hulu’s High Fidelity reboot series. She will also direct an episode of Shrill, the streamer’s Aidy Bryant-starrer.

“I was directing High Fidelity mostly in Brooklyn, and now I’m directing Awkwafina mostly in Queens, so I’m really making my way through the boroughs,” Lyonne joked to Deadline. She will direct episode 104, entitled “Paperwork,” of the Awkwafina project.

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“It’s been great,” Lyonne said of these latest directing opportunities. “I’m getting in my hours. I dropped out of film school when I was 16. I dropped out of Tisch. I was in the filmmaking program as a film and philosophy double major. I really thought that I was going to read all these philosophical works and then I was going to make movies about them. Then I dropped out, and so now I’m getting it all back in. My teenage self is in seventh heaven.”

It’s been a busy summer for Lyonne, with her show Russian Doll renewed for a second season and nominated for a total of 13 Emmys, three of which are for Lyonne herself, for exec producing, acting the lead role and writing.

Awkwafina centers on the character of Nora, and was co-written by its titular star, with Karey Dornetto (SMILF) and Teresa Hsiao (Family Guy). Based on Awkwafina’s own experiences growing up in Queens, it also stars BD Wong and Lori Tan Chinn and is exec produced by Nora Lum, Karey Dornetto, Lucia Aniello, Peter Principato and Itay Reiss of Artists First, and co-executive produced by Teresa Hsiao.

High Fidelity, a reimagining of Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel and the 2000 feature starring John Cusack, is reframed from a female point of view, with Zoe Kravitz in the Cusack role, Jake Lacey co-starring and Hornby on board as an EP, while Shrill is entering its second season, with Lyonne set to direct episode 206. Among its exec producers are Bryant, Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks.

Lyonne has also directed an episode of the current and final season of Orange is the New Black, in which she stars, and the Kenzo short film Cabiria, Charity, Chastity, which was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival.

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