Early life

Schilling was born on July 27, 1984 in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Patricia (née Miller), an MIT administrator, and Robert J. Schilling, a former prosecutor. She grew up in West Roxbury and Wayland, splitting time between her divorced parents. A fan of the NBC medical drama ER during her youth, she began acting at a young age. She became active in her middle school's theatre program when she appeared in a stage production of Fiddler on the Roof.

After graduating from Wayland High School in 2002, Schilling attended Fordham University's campus at Lincoln Center, where she continued to take part in stage productions before earning her Bachelor of Arts in 2006. She then entered the graduate program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to continue her acting studies but left after her second year to start auditioning. While attempting to break into acting, she supported herself by working as a nanny for a Manhattan-based family.

Career

Schilling made her feature film debut with a supporting role in the independent film Dark Matter (2007). In 2009, she was selected to star in the NBC medical drama Mercy, as Nurse Veronica Flanagan Callahan, a tough Iraq War veteran and former military nurse-turned-medical practitioner. Reading for the part via videotape from New York City, she impressed the show's creator and executive producer, Liz Heldens, who then flew her out to Los Angeles to audition for the role. In Heldens' words, "she just blew the doors off the audition." The show ran for one season from September 2009 to May 2010.

Schilling won the Emerson College Playwright's Festival Outstanding Performance Award. She portrayed Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011), and co-starred with Zac Efron in the romantic drama film The Lucky One (2012). She currently stars as Piper Chapman in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, based on the Piper Kerman memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. The show premiered on July 11, 2013. For her work on the show, Schilling was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Dark Matter	Jackie
2011	Atlas Shrugged: Part I	Dagny Taggart
2012	The Lucky One	Beth Green
2012	Argo	Christine Mendez
2013	Stay	Abbey
2015	The Overnight	Emily

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009-10	Mercy	Veronica Flanagan Callahan	22 episodes
2013-present	Orange Is the New Black	Piper Chapman	77 episodes; Netflix Original Series

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref(s)
2012	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie: Liplock	The Lucky One	Nominated
		Choice Movie Actress: Romance		Nominated
	Hollywood Film Festival	Best Cast	Argo	Won
2013	Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy	Orange Is the New Black	Won
		Best Cast - Television Series		Won
	Webby Awards	Best Actress		Won
2014	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
2015	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy		Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Won
2016	Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]