Taylor Schilling was born on July 27, 1984 in Boston, Massachusetts. She loved acting and theater and her favorite past time was watching ER in her teens (I remember those days). She started acting in middle school, continued on in high school and took part in a few stage productions while earning her Bachelor of Arts in 2006 from Fordham University. While attending New York University to continue her studies, she decided to to leave and pursue her acting career. So why was Taylor selected for this week’s woman crush?  Read on!

Taylor Schilling started acting in 2007 and appeared in a film along side Meryl Streep called Dark Matter by director Chen Shi-zheng. The movie was inspired by a true story of Gang Lu, former graduate student of University of Iowa who killed four faculty members and one student. Taylor later appeared as Veronica Agnes Flanagan Callahan in Mercy, a medical drama that ran on NBC.

Schilling is best known for her portrayal of Piper Chapman on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black which aired on July 11, 2013. She has already won multiple awards for her performance.

Piper Chapman’s Backstory

Piper Chapman is a bi-sexual woman who had a relationship with lesbian, Alex Vause, a former drug smuggler. The two met in a bar while traveling. Vause convinced Piper to smuggle cash through customs at an airport in Europe. Piper was detained for the crime and sent to Litchfield Penitentiary where she is carrying out her sentence.