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Actor

1985-09-06 · Chicago, Illinois, USA · Female

47 series in the catalog

Dorthea Lauren Allegra Lapkus (born September 6, 1985) is an American actress and comedian, known for portraying Susan Fischer in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2014, 2019), Denise in The Big Bang Theory (2018–2019), and Jess in the HBO comedy-drama series Crashing (2017–2019). She has also appeared in the television series Are You There, Chelsea? (2012), Hot in Cleveland (2012), Clipped (2015), and Good Girls (2020–2021) and in the films Jurassic World (2015), The Unicorn (2018), and The Wrong Missy (2020). She played the voice role of Lotta in the animated comedy series Harvey Girls Forever! (2018–2020).

Lapkus has appeared on various podcasts, including Comedy Bang! Bang!, improv4humans, and her own podcasts With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, Laptime with Lauren Lapkus, Threedom, Raised by TV, and Newcomers.

Early life

Dorthea Lauren Allegra Lapkus was born on September 6, 1985, in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She has Greek and Lithuanian ancestry. At an early age, she filmed sketches with her older brother and later at Evanston Township High School where she participated in the annual student revue and variety show YAMO.

During her senior year of high school, she began taking improvisational theatre (improv) classes at the iO Theater. She attended DePaul University graduating in 2008 with a degree in English, while she continued performing improv most nights. Lapkus credits watching many television sitcoms and Saturday Night Live while young for inspiring her to become a comedian.

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 acquired representation, and during pilot season, she landed a supporting role in the short-lived sitcom Are You There, Chelsea?.

After self-taping her audition, Lapkus was cast as correctional officer 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.

Lapkus launched her own podcast With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus on the Earwolf network in 2014. Each week her guest is a host of their own podcast, and she appears 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 the feature film 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. Between 2017 and 2019 Lapkus appeared in the HBO series Crashing in the recurring role of Jess, the main character's ex-wife.

In 2020, Lapkus launched a weekly podcast Newcomers with co-host Nicole Byer on the Headgum podcast network, in which the two friends watch film franchises for the first time and provide commentary on them. The podcast has covered the franchises Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Tyler Perry, Fast & Furious, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Batman franchises. Past guests have included John Gemberling, Demi Adejuyigbe, Paul F. Tompkins, and Betsy Sodaro.

Lapkus performs improv regularly. She is a cast member of Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB)'s flagship show Asssscat and improv group Wild Horses.

Personal life

Lapkus married actor and improviser Chris Alvarado on May 3, 2014. She announced their separation on February 14, 2016, and they divorced later that year.

Lapkus married actor Mike Castle on October 5, 2018. On May 18, 2021, Lapkus announced that they were expecting a baby girl in the summer. She gave birth to a daughter in July 2021. On December 8, 2023, Lapkus revealed she was expecting another baby girl and announced the following May that she had given birth to a second daughter.

Lauren Lapkus discography at Discogs

Lauren Lapkus on Breaking it Down with Frank MacKay