Lauren Lapkus

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.

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.