<Tr> <Th> Occupation </Th> <Td> Actress </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Years active </Th> <Td> 2007--present </Td> </Tr> <P> Taylor Schilling (born July 27, 1984) is an American actress . She is known for her role as Piper Chapman on the Netflix original comedy - drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013--present), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress--Television Series Musical or Comedy and Best Actress--Television Series Drama . She made her film debut in the 2007 drama Dark Matter . Schilling also starred in the short - lived NBC medical drama Mercy (2009--10). Her other films include Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011), the romantic drama The Lucky One (2012), and the comedy Take Me (2017). </P> <P> 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 . </P>

Who played piper in orange is the new black