100 Fun Facts About Orange is the New Black

On which streaming service did Orange Is the New Black premiere in 2013?

Netflix renewed the show for a second season two weeks before the first had even premiered.

Before Orange Is the New Black, Jenji Kohan created which Showtime comedy?

Weeds ran for eight seasons on Showtime. Kohan then took her prison series to a streaming service because, she said, she wanted to be first on a new frontier.

Orange Is the New Black is based on a memoir by which real woman?

Piper Kerman's 2010 book made her an advocate as well as an author: she has twice testified before US Senate committees about conditions in federal prisons.

In Orange Is the New Black, what is the SHU that inmates dread being sent to?

Solitary confinement: the SHU is not only for rule-breakers, as Sophia is locked in it after she threatens to sue the prison over an attack on her.

How long is Piper's original prison sentence?

15 months was also the real sentence handed to the memoir's author. On screen it lasts far longer, since Piper is not released until the end of season six.

What crime landed Piper in prison?

Carrying drug money through customs: Piper did it once, for her girlfriend, and had built a quiet life in New York by the time the charge caught up with her about ten years later.

Who plays Piper Chapman?

Taylor Schilling was the first actor cast. The Golden Globes nominated her as a drama actress for the first season, then as a comedy actress for the second.

Which Dawson's Creek actress discussed playing Piper Chapman with the creator of Orange Is the New Black before other commitments intervened?

Katie Holmes met the creator about the part but was committed elsewhere, at a point when, the creator said later, nobody yet knew what the show would be.

In Orange Is the New Black, what was Sophia Burset's job before she went to prison?

Firefighter: the job's medical training pays off during the season-five riot, when Sophia stops a guard who has been shot from bleeding to death.

Laura Prepon, who plays Alex Vause, first found fame as Donna on which sitcom?

That '70s Show made Prepon a star. She first read for Piper, but the casting director felt she would never look scared in prison, which made her right for Alex instead.

Who plays Piper's fiancé Larry Bloom?

Jason Biggs left as a regular after two seasons, once the engagement was over and Larry had taken up with Piper's best friend.

Which Star Trek: Voyager star plays kitchen boss Galina 'Red' Reznikov in Orange Is the New Black?

Kate Mulgrew auditioned with Red's origin story: she bursts a mobster's wife's breast implant with a punch, which leaves her family owing the mob a favour.

What nationality is Red, the inmate who runs the prison kitchen?

Russian: Red gives the addicts she helps only two strikes before cutting them off because, as she puts it, 'Russians don't play baseball.'

Which character earns the nickname 'Crazy Eyes'?

Suzanne Warren was cast by accident: the actress taped an audition for the track star Janae, and the creator watched it and gave her Suzanne instead, with no second reading.

What pet name does Suzanne give Piper because of her blonde hair?

Dandelion: when Piper turns her down, Suzanne takes her revenge by urinating on the floor of Piper's cubicle in the night.

Which Orange Is the New Black actress won Emmys in both comedy and drama categories for the same role?

Uzo Aduba won as a comedy guest actress in 2014 and a drama supporting actress in 2015, because the show changed category in between. Only Ed Asner, as Lou Grant, had done the double before.

Why did Orange Is the New Black move from comedy to drama at the 2015 Emmys?

A rule on hour-long shows: from 2015 the Emmys counted them as dramas unless a panel agreed otherwise, and the panel ruled that this series had to compete as a drama.

Who plays Tasha 'Taystee' Jefferson?

Danielle Brooks's Taystee wins parole in season one, finds no support waiting for her outside, and is soon back inside after violating it.

Which actress played Poussey Washington in Orange Is the New Black and later starred in The Handmaid's Tale?

Samira Wiley's character is killed off in season four, and the series ends with Taystee launching a loan fund for newly released women in Poussey's name.

Which corrections officer accidentally kills Poussey in season four?

Bayley pins Poussey to the floor while guards clear a peaceful cafeteria protest, and she suffocates. The prison's handling of her death sets off the riot that fills season five.

Roughly how long does the season-five riot in Orange Is the New Black last?

Three days: all thirteen episodes of the season unfold inside that window, until an armed tactical team storms the prison to end it.

In Orange Is the New Black, which guard forces his way onto Red's kitchen smuggling route to bring in drugs?

Mendez, nicknamed Pornstache, uses Red's supplier for his drugs until she helps to set him up: he is caught with an inmate and suspended.

Which villain of Orange Is the New Black's second season beats Red with a padlock inside a sock?

Vee strikes from behind in the greenhouse the morning after she and Red had shaken hands on a truce.

Who plays Nicky, Red's most trusted assistant, in Orange Is the New Black?

Natasha Lyonne planned to read for a different inmate, but the producers already wanted her for Nicky and would not let her.

In Orange Is the New Black, which terminally ill inmate drives off in the prison van to end season two?

Miss Rosa, a former bank robber with only weeks to live, is left the keys by a sympathetic inmate and runs down the season's villain on her way out.

Which real-life transgender actress plays Sophia Burset?

Laverne Cox's twin brother, the musician M Lamar, was cast to play Sophia before her transition in the flashback scenes.

Which milestone for openly transgender performers did Sophia Burset's actress reach in 2014?

An acting Emmy nomination: she was up for guest actress in a comedy, the same category as two of her castmates, and one of them beat her to the award.

What is the nickname of Tiffany Doggett, played by Taryn Manning?

Pennsatucky shot a clinic worker for mocking her, but anti-abortion campaigners took it for a protest, hailed her as a hero and gave her free legal help.

Which corrections officer fathers Daya's baby?

Bennett lets another guard take the blame for the pregnancy, proposes to Daya, then loses his nerve after meeting her family and drives away for good.

Which Piper business venture in season three smuggles goods out of prison via a friendly guard?

Used panties: Piper first paid the inmates who wore them in ramen flavor packets, then had to pay cash when Flaca threatened a strike, and fired her for it.

Which words does Piper have tattooed on her arm by new inmate Stella Carlin?

Trust No Bitch proves apt: Stella, who inked it, steals the takings of Piper's business, and Piper has contraband hidden in her bunk two days before her release.

Which real-life media personality is inmate Judy King loosely based on?

Martha Stewart went to federal prison in 2004. Her stand-in Judy King, a television cook convicted of tax evasion, is handed a private room while the rest of the prison is overcrowded.

Who plays inmate Lolly Whitehill, the conspiracy theorist convinced that government agents are after her?

Lori Petty's Lolly is proved half right when a hit man really does come to the prison, for Alex, and Lolly saves her by kicking him unconscious.

Which corrections officer (Brad William Henke) kidnaps and tortures Red's group in the riot?

Piscatella is let go by the inmates he tortured, then shot dead by mistake by one of the officers storming the prison, who pin his death on the inmates.

In Orange Is the New Black, where are Piper and Alex sent straight after the season-five riot?

Litchfield Maximum Security holds them through season six, where they are caught in a war between two cell blocks run by feuding sisters.

A large part of Orange Is the New Black's final season takes place in what kind of facility?

An ICE detention center: the former inmates Blanca and Maritza are held there, and Maritza, newly out on parole, ends up deported to Colombia.

Who wrote and performs 'You've Got Time', the theme song of Orange Is the New Black?

Regina Spektor wrote it because the show's creator, who had played her albums constantly while writing the series, begged her to.

Whose faces fill the close-ups in the opening titles of Orange Is the New Black?

Real former prisoners: dozens of women who had served time, the memoir's author among them, were photographed thinking of a peaceful place, someone who makes them laugh and something they want to forget.

The prison exteriors of Orange Is the New Black were filmed at what kind of disused building?

A children's psychiatric center in Rockland County, New York, supplied the prison's exterior. Most interiors were shot at the Queens studio that is also home to Sesame Street.

At which real federal prison did the author of the original memoir serve most of her sentence?

FCI Danbury, Connecticut held her for most of her 13 months, but she was not freed from it: after transfers through Oklahoma City she walked out of a federal jail in Chicago.

In season one of Orange Is the New Black, which animal does Red become obsessed with catching?

A chicken: the bird is a prison legend until Piper says she has seen it, and Red, who dreams of cooking one properly, offers a reward to whoever catches it.

Which film star directed two early episodes of Orange Is the New Black, including the season-two premiere?

Jodie Foster asked for the job herself, and the creator's view was simple: when Jodie Foster wants to direct your show, you say yes.

Which radio host turned down the chance to play a public radio host on Orange Is the New Black?

Ira Glass politely declined, the creator said, so Robert Stanton played the host Maury Kind, in glasses chosen to give a flavor of his.

To which state does Piper move in the Orange Is the New Black finale?

Ohio: Alex is transferred to a prison there after a guard demands she be moved, and the finale shows Piper, now free, visiting her.

What happened to ten episodes of Orange Is the New Black's fifth season weeks before their release?

A hacker leaked them after breaking into a post-production company and demanding a ransom from the streaming service, which did not pay.

Which character, played by Alysia Reiner, is exposed for embezzlement with help from Piper and Caputo?

Natalie Figueroa has been skimming the prison's budget to fund her husband's run for the state senate. Forced out, she is back in charge as a warden by the final season.

In its first week, Orange Is the New Black drew more viewers than House of Cards and which newly revived sitcom?

Arrested Development had itself opened bigger than House of Cards, helped by an existing fan base, and the prison show, launched with no big names, then beat them both.

How did creator Jenji Kohan describe Piper Chapman's function in Orange Is the New Black?

A 'trojan horse': Kohan said no network would buy a show about Black and Latina women, old women and criminals, so a white, well-off lead got those stories through the door.

Yael Stone, cast as Lorna Morello, first auditioned for which inmate, Lorna's on-off lover?

Nicky Nichols needed someone tougher, Stone was told, so she came back with a 1940s-style accent of her own and won the part of Lorna instead.

In Orange Is the New Black, which inmate is already inside when her own daughter, Daya, arrives?

Aleida welcomes her daughter to prison with a slap across the face, and the two go on to serve their sentences side by side.

In an Orange Is the New Black flashback, what injury does Red inflict on the wife of a mob boss?

A burst implant puts Red in the mob's debt: to make amends, her husband agrees to hold secret packages for the gangsters, and she climbs their ranks from there.

In Orange Is the New Black, which tool does Piper take from the electrical shop by mistake, sparking a search?

A screwdriver could be used as a weapon, so the staff turn the prison over looking for it. The hunt ends when a guard quietly buys a replacement to cover his own carelessness.

In Orange Is the New Black, Black Cindy fakes which faith to get better prison meals, then converts for real?

Judaism begins as a ruse for kosher trays when budget cuts ruin the food. After a visiting rabbi exposes her as a faker, she studies in earnest and completes her conversion.

In the season-three finale of Orange Is the New Black, where do inmates escape to play after a construction mishap?

A lake behind the prison gives the women a few minutes of freedom; they swim and splash as buses full of new inmates pull up at the gate.

In Orange Is the New Black, which nickname do inmates give the corrupt guard played by Pablo Schreiber?

Pornstache is fired and arrested in season two, declaring his love for an inmate as officers lead him out. Schreiber went on to play Mad Sweeney in American Gods.

In Orange Is the New Black, what is the truth about Christopher, the man Lorna Morello calls her fiancé?

She stalked him after a single date, and he was never her fiancé. Left alone with the prison van on an errand, she breaks into his house and takes a bath in a wedding veil.

In Orange Is the New Black, Red reworks the swastika branded on Piper's arm into which shape?

A window is what Red makes of it, burning extra lines around the symbol. A rival gang had branded Piper after she accidentally started a white-power group.

Season three of Orange Is the New Black opens with a prison visiting party held for which holiday?

Mother's Day brings the inmates' children inside for a party meant to soften the regime. It ends badly for one mother, whose partner says he will stop bringing their baby.

Before prison in Orange Is the New Black, Piper Chapman and her best friend run a small business making what?

Soap is the product, and Piper tries to keep a hand in the business by phone from prison while her partner takes more and more control.

In Orange Is the New Black, Blanca seems to rant at the Devil in a toilet stall; who is really listening?

Her boyfriend is on the other end of a mobile phone she hides behind a tile, and his nickname is Diablo. She feigns madness so that nobody looks any closer.

Which infestation does the prison battle in the second episode of season three of Orange Is the New Black?

Bedbugs arrive just as Joe Caputo learns that the prison is to close for lack of money, the crisis that drives the rest of the season.

In season three of Orange Is the New Black, what saves the prison from being shut down?

A private firm takes over: the corporation MCC keeps the doors open, then cuts the guards to part-time hours and swaps kitchen cooking for boil-in-the-bag meals.

In the season-two premiere of Orange Is the New Black, to which city is Piper flown to testify in court?

Chicago hosts the trial of Alex's old boss in the drug trade. Piper lies on the stand to protect Alex, then learns that Alex told the truth and is walking free.

In the season-one finale of Orange Is the New Black, which event is under way when Piper beats Tiffany Doggett?

A Christmas pageant fills the hall while the two face off outside in the yard. Doggett attacks with a home-made blade, and Piper finally loses control.

In Orange Is the New Black, which crime did Sophia Burset commit to pay for her gender transition?

Credit card fraud paid for her surgery. Inside, a budget cut to her hormone dose drives her to ask her wife to smuggle pills in, and her wife flatly refuses.

After Piper insults the food in Orange Is the New Black, how does kitchen boss Red punish her?

Starves her out: the kitchen stops feeding Piper until she wins Red round with a home-made lotion for her bad back.

In season two of Orange Is the New Black, why is Piper allowed out of prison for 48 hours?

Her dying grandmother is the reason, but the furlough comes a day too late. Piper gets out for the funeral, which her brother turns into his own wedding.

In Orange Is the New Black, what does Poussey Washington secretly make and stash in the prison library?

Hooch is her home-brewed alcohol. She refuses a gang leader's offer to sell it for her, and in season three she sets traps for whatever keeps stealing it.

Which Australian model joined Orange Is the New Black in season three as the inmate Stella Carlin?

Ruby Rose had hosted MTV Australia and co-hosted the news show The Project before the part, which is seen as her breakthrough. She later led the superhero series Batwoman.

Which stand-up comedian and jazz singer plays the inmate Big Boo in Orange Is the New Black?

Lea DeLaria appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1993 as the first openly gay comic on an American late-night talk show.

In Orange Is the New Black flashbacks, Poussey Washington lives on a US Army base in which country?

Germany is where she falls for the daughter of her father's commanding officer. When the two are found together, her family is abruptly posted back to the United States.

In Orange Is the New Black, which talkative inmate is Poussey Washington's girlfriend at the time of Poussey's death?

Brook Soso arrives in season two as the newcomer who will not stop talking. Poussey later saves her after an overdose, and the pair fall in love in season four.

In the final season of Orange Is the New Black, Tiffany Doggett overdoses believing she has failed which exam?

The GED had come within reach once a teacher spotted her dyslexia, but she was not given the extra time she was due. After her death Taystee learns that she passed.

In season three of Orange Is the New Black, what does 'Crazy Eyes' write that becomes a hit with fellow inmates?

Sci-fi erotica pours out of her after a new counselor urges her to be creative. The saga gains a cult following until the staff confiscate it and suspend the counselor.

In Orange Is the New Black, what does Tiffany Doggett receive at the prison's expense after Piper beats her up?

New teeth were what she had wanted all along: drug use had ruined her own, and she had hoped a seat on the inmates' council would get them replaced.

In Orange Is the New Black, who replaces Red as head cook when Red's smuggling is exposed in season one?

Gloria Mendoza takes over the kitchen with the Latina inmates. Red sabotages it to win her place back, but the grease fire that follows injures one of her own friends.

In season three of Orange Is the New Black, which inmate attracts followers who believe she works miracles?

Norma had once been a follower herself: flashbacks show her as one of a self-styled prophet's many wives, until she killed him.

In season two of Orange Is the New Black, which inmate is force-fed by doctors after joining a hunger strike?

Sister Ingalls, a nun, joins the strike in anger at the way a confused elderly inmate was let go. When she faints, Joe Caputo has her taken to medical.

After losing the kitchen in Orange Is the New Black, Red restarts her smuggling through a drain in which building?

The greenhouse hides a disused drain pipe under its floorboards, so Red starts growing plants there as cover and wins back her old circle of friends.

In season four of Orange Is the New Black, where do Alex and Lolly hide the body of a hitman?

Under the garden: with an older inmate's help they cut the body up and bury it beneath the plants, where groundsmen dig it up later in the season.

In Orange Is the New Black, which elderly inmate keeps a secret bunker in the prison's abandoned swimming pool?

Frieda Berlin learned survival skills from a father who feared nuclear war. She had been stocking her hideout with supplies for decades before the riot.

As season four of Orange Is the New Black ends, which sadistic officer is being held at gunpoint by an inmate?

Humphrey had smuggled the gun in himself, and had earlier forced an inmate at gunpoint to eat a live baby mouse. The next season opens with him shot in the thigh.

In the Orange Is the New Black finale, what does the Poussey Washington Fund offer women leaving prison?

Microloans to help released women find their feet are Taystee's idea, and the fund was also announced as a real-life initiative.

In season six of Orange Is the New Black, which game is meant to be cover for a gang knife fight?

Kickball stops the war instead: when a huge kick goes up, a rival pockets her knife to make the catch, and both blocks lose themselves in the game.

In Orange Is the New Black, the meth-using inmate Leanne grew up in which strict religious community?

Amish life is what she left behind. Flashbacks show her arrested for possessing meth while she is trying to return to her family.

In Orange Is the New Black, Flaca is jailed after selling classmates a fake version of which drug?

LSD was what her classmates thought they were buying, but her blotters were only placebos. One boy who believed he was high jumped from a building, and she was arrested.

Before prison in Orange Is the New Black, Black Cindy steals from travellers while working in which job?

Airport security lets her rummage through other people's bags. She lifts an iPad as a birthday present for a child who thinks Cindy is her older sibling but is really her daughter.

In season one of Orange Is the New Black, which strict bunkmate of Piper's chokes a guard after losing her appeal?

Miss Claudette had once run an illegal cleaning service on child labour. When her appeal fails she attacks an officer and is moved to a harsher prison, never to return.

In season one of Orange Is the New Black, what does Tiffany Doggett hang that brings down the chapel ceiling?

A heavy cross overloads the ceiling when she tries to hang it from a pipe, and the inmates are made to clear up and repair the damage.

Which Orange Is the New Black actress, who plays Maritza Ramos, later voiced Isabela in Disney's Encanto?

Diane Guerrero voiced Isabela Madrigal in the 2021 film. She had been cast in the prison drama in 2012 as a Bronx-bred character with Colombian roots.

Which stand-up comedian plays Danny Pearson, the boss Joe Caputo reports to in Orange Is the New Black?

Mike Birbiglia, known for solo shows such as Sleepwalk with Me, appears in seasons three and four and shared the cast's Screen Actors Guild ensemble award.

Which star of the film Pretty in Pink went on to direct many episodes of Orange Is the New Black?

Andrew McCarthy directed fifteen episodes spread across all seven seasons, more than any other director on the drama, including three season openers.

Which actress, Nina Sharp in the series Fringe, plays celebrity chef Judy King in Orange Is the New Black?

Blair Brown plays the television cook, who is convicted of tax evasion, turns up to surrender in the season-three finale and is then given a private room away from the other women.

Constance Shulman, who plays Yoga Jones in Orange Is the New Black, voiced which character in the cartoon Doug?

Patti Mayonnaise was Shulman's part for the cartoon's whole run from 1991 to 1999, and again in the film Doug's 1st Movie.

In Orange Is the New Black, prison administrator Joe Caputo plays bass in a bar band with which name?

Side Boob is his outlet after hours. Years earlier he had quit a more promising group to support a pregnant partner, then watched it succeed without him.

In Orange Is the New Black, Poussey Washington is named after a town in which country, where her father was posted?

France is home to Poussay, a town in the north-east where her father was stationed when she was born. Other inmates mock the name for the way it can be pronounced.

In Orange Is the New Black, what are the older inmates who take Red in during season two collectively called?

The Golden Girls later plot to kill a rival gang leader on Red's behalf without telling her, and they stab the wrong woman.

In season one of Orange Is the New Black, which young inmate's fatal overdose does a guard disguise as a hanging?

Tricia Miller kept a list of everything she shoplifted while living on the streets so that she could pay it all back. Her death turns Red against the guard who supplied her.

In Orange Is the New Black, counselor Sam Healy is unhappily married to a woman who came to America how?

As a mail-order bride from Ukraine she speaks little English, so he asks Red to interpret. Red ends up scolding her and defending him as a good man.

In season two of Orange Is the New Black, Larry Bloom begins an affair with which friend of Piper's?

Polly has a new baby and a husband who is often away on trips. She leaves him for Larry, and by the final season the two are expecting a child together.