A Field Guide To Taylor Schilling

Taylor "Piper Chapman" Schilling may not have gone home with any Emmys last night, but she'll always be a breast actress in our books. And what better way to celebrate her most notable achievements than by learning a little bit more about where she comes from and what makes her tick?

Taylor Schilling was born July 27, 1984, in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in West Roxbury and Wayland, splitting her time between the homes of her divorced parents (her father, Robert, was a former prosecutor; her mother, Patricia, an administrator at MIT). Like so many of her Emmy nominated peers, she discovered her love of acting at a very young age (apparently inspired by medical drama ER, which she watched as a kid). After years of dreaming,s he finally took the stage for the first time as a ten-year-old in a middle school production of "Fiddler on the Roof."

After graduating high school, Schilling made her way to New York to attend Fordham University, appearing in stage productions in the city while earning her bachelor's. One of those stage productions happened to be a play called Top Girls, which happened to be directed by a woman named Erica Schmidt... who just so happened to be married to an actor you may have heard of (does the name Peter Dinklage ring any bells?). Dinklage did some outreach to agents, getting a few to show up to Top Girls – and, more importantly, one to sign Schilling as a client. While Schilling's agent promoted her to casting directors, she enrolled in a graduate level acting program at NYU. But school no longer held her interest: after one year in the program, Schilling dropped out of NYU, figuring that her time would be better spent auditioning for roles.

It didn't take long for those auditions to lead to real work – though in many cases, Schilling's early gigs ended up feeling like mixed blessings. Case in point: Schilling scored her first big screen role in 2007, appearing alongside acting legend Meryl Streep in the indie film "Dark Matter." But in spite of being a dream first gig, it didn't secure her a path to fame and fortune: due to the plot's resemblance to the real life details of the Virginia Tech massacre, distributors deemed it unwise to release, and the film was ultimately given an incredibly minimal release.

Next, she scored a recurring role as Nurse Veronica Flanagan Callahan in NBC hospital drama "Mercy." (Fun fact: she prepared for the role by spending time observing nurses in an actual New York City emergency room. No word on if she used similar methods to prepare for the hot sapphic sex scenes she later gained fame for.) It was a fun show that gave her the chance to act alongside none other than Michelle Trachtenberg – but it somehow never managed to catch on with viewers, and was cancelled after a single season thanks to low ratings.

And then there was the lowest point in Schilling's career: in 2011 she portrayed Dagny Taggart in "Atlas Shrugged: Part I," a critically panned movie (garnering only 11% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer) that inspired descriptions like "talky bore," "comically tasteless," and "eye-rollingly clumsy." It could have been a career killer – Schilling was convinced it was – but then, suddenly, her luck began to change.

First up was a role alongside "High School Musical"'s Zac Efron in "The Lucky One," who she had the good fortune of shooting a few sex scenes with (though sadly for us, nothing as steamy as what she ultimately got up to in "Orange is the New Black"). And then, of course, there was "Orange is the New Black" itself, a series that garnered her fame, respect, and multiple award nominations... all while giving us ample opportunities to ogle her boobs.

There's no question that "Orange is the New Black" has been a game changer for Schilling (and not just because it landed her other gigs in which she got to show some skin on screen). Where once she lived in a cramped Williamsburg apartment with three roommates and bedbugs, now she attends glamorous galas celebrating her acting achievements (and, from what we can tell, no longer lives in bedbug infested apartments). And with Season 3 of "Orange is the New Black" getting ready to film (and likely getting released next summer – we know, we're impatient too), it can only get better.

We're not sure what the next season of "Orange is the New Black" will involve for Schilling, but we do know that Laura Prepon is back as a series regular (so hopefully more lesbian sex scenes between the two of them?). Regardless, we're thrilled to know that we've got another dozen or so chances to watch Schilling on screen... and that none of those chances will ever again have the title "Atlas Shrugged."