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"I love you, I'm okay. I'm a good person now!"
— Leanne to her mother after being caught by the SWAT team in the riot.

Leanne Lemmle Taylor is a former inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary, portrayed by Emma Myles. She is currently at FDC Cleveland as of Season 7. She serves as a recurring antagonist/anti-villain throughout the series, but is also caring for some people and clever at times.

Personality[]

Leanne is easily appealed to and influenced by radical ideas and leader figures due to her desire of feeling part of a group. She tends to devote herself fully and obsessively to any religious, or social, group she attaches herself to. She is typically rude and hateful to anyone who doesn't share her views, as seen in her showing resentment to Pennsatucky in Season Two, and Soso in Season Three. She typically tries to take over when she gets a taste of power and is very protective of her beliefs.

Despite this, Leanne is shown to be very loyal towards people she loves, including her family, Pennsatucky in Season One, and her best friend Angie.

Physical Appearance[]

Leanne is very fair skinned with long blonde hair and a slim build. She has severely discolored and decayed teeth, most likely as a result of her addiction to methamphetamine.

Biography[]

Before Litchfield []

For a list of episodes featuring Leanne's flashbacks, see here.

Leanne grew up in a strict Amish community and speaks Pennsylvania Dutch. During her Rumspringa in 2004, she briefly left her family to experience secular life and became involved in drugs. She later rejoins her former community, deciding to be baptized fully into the church instead of leaving it as some of her peers choose to do. On the day of the ceremony, police find a drug-laden backpack in the cornfield separating the Amish community from its surroundings, and trace it back to Leanne, as she left her ID inside.

She is forced to expose her friends, children from her community who have abandoned the Amish way of life, as well as parts of a drug cartel in order to remain with her family. When she returns, she is shunned for betraying her kind (and for causing some of the Elders' children to get arrested) and subsequently runs away after hearing her parents discussing what to do with her.

It is currently unknown why she's locked up despite cooperating with the police, but a popular (but completely speculative) fan-theory postulates that she may have been placed on probation with house arrest as a reduced charge for her cooperation, and by running away she violated that probation, ultimately resulting in reinstatement of her original sentence.

Season One[]

Leanne was close friends with Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett and backs up Doggett in many situations. She is supposedly a devoted Christian along with Doggett. Taylor is seen exchanging sexual favors with George Mendez for drugs. 

Season Two[]

She stands up against Doggett and is shown to break off into her own character with her friends, leaving Doggett by herself. ("You Also Have a Pizza") As she and Angie's friendship continue to grow, Leanne somewhat takes over Pennsatucky's leadership role. During the flood situation, Leanne and Angie sneak off into the kitchen and snort nutmeg, causing them to get high. Leanne and Angie decide to join the hunger strike, they show little dedication, however, and offer trivial demands such as different maple syrup and more dessert options. Leanne also calls Sister Ingalls out for taking charge in their "leaderless" hunger strike. Shortly after this, CO Ford and CO O'Neill tempt the hunger strikers with pizza, causing Leanne and Angie to falter and break their several hour long hunger strike. ("Take a Break From Your Values")

Season Three[]

She spends most of her time being part of the organization that worships Norma. Her history of fundamentalism causes her to go way overboard and ruin the entire "Norma experience" for the others. For example, she forces all the inmates to scream out 'what they're feeling' and tries to get everyone to treat the group as a serious religion. She also continually bullies Soso, because she refers to the group as a club and not a religion in front of Chaplain Royce. Like in past seasons, she and Angie return to their drug tendencies and do some of the heroin that Nicky has stashed away.

Season Four[]

Leanne is often seen with the White Power Group, having resumed her status as more of a follower than a leader.

Leanne and Angie are seen alerting the others in the Suburbs about the ensuing riot in the last episode of the season.

Season Five[]

Leanne is seen throughout the rebellion with Angie. The pair order a pizza but are stopped by Taystee, Watson, Black Cindy, and Alison. They confess they voted for Hot Cheetos and Takis to be added to the demands list 27 times, prompting Taystee to angrily tell them to leave the room. Before they exit, they pull Taystee's pants down, causing Watson to chase them. At some point during this, they manage to get the gun and consequently force the hostage guards to put on a show for the inmates. CO Stratman is forced to strip until he is nearly naked, then seduces Leanne with a dance and almost kisses her.

Soon after, Leanne and Angie find CO Coates hiding in a dryer in the laundry room. Pennsatucky stumbles upon the scene as she is returning to Coates, who she has been hiding, and pretends not to have known about his whereabouts. She congratulates the pair and tries various times to convince them to leave him with her, but Leanne and Angie both accuse her of trying to "steal their thunder;" they want to be the heroes who found the guard. As Pennsatucky follows them down the hallway, she realizes Angie has the gun attached to her belt, and grabs it from her. She points it at Leanne and Angie, then tosses it Coates, intending for him to escape. Coates accidentally fires the gun when he catches it and Leanne's "favorite finger" is shot, causing her to lose part of her finger.  


Later on, Leanne and Angie find Leanne's fingertip in the hallway where she was shot, and they kidnap the last nurse from Medical, intending to force him to sew CO Stratman's fingertip onto Leanne's severed finger, which is what they call a "finger transplant." Stratman convinces Leanne to give it a "test drive," by which he means fingering her. 

Just before a CERT team storms their dorm, Leanne and Angie burn inmate files containing shots and records; this happened after the pair realized they were "the bad guys" and decided to do something good.

At the end of the rebellion, Leanne sees her mother outside the prison when the prison is being stormed. Leanne is transferred and does not appear in the sixth season.

Relationships[]

Friends[]

  • Angie Rice (best friend) - Leanne has the dominant role in the friendship and generally bosses Angie around after their friendship with Doggett is over. She is a former follower of Doggett.
  • Tiffany Doggett (former)
  • Loretta - Leanne's friend, and a former follower of Doggett.
  • Kasey Sankey - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Helen Van Maele - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Brandy Epps - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Jennifer Digori - Fellow member of the White Power Group.
  • Linda Ferguson

Enemies[]

  • Brook Soso - Leanne did not sympathized with Soso during Norma of worship, especially when she offended about their religion.
  • Poussey Washington - Poussey was extremely angry at Leanne when Soso was almost killed. Leanne was upset when Poussey died, since there would be no one who would produce hooch.
  • Weeping Woman - Leanne was angry with her cries when the toast fell to the ground.
  • Maria Ruiz - Leanne warned Maria on the task force in prison.
  • Pennsatucky (former friends) - In season five, Pennsatucky helps CO Coates escape. This alone was enough to infuriate Leanne and Angie, but when she threw Coates the gun, the trigger went off, shooting Leanne's middle finger.

Memorable Quotes[]

"You're not like The Wizard of Oz! You're like the Wizard of ... God!"
— Leanne Taylor
"Yo, yo My name is Leanne and I got game, we're here in Litchfield and it's kind of lame, this rapping thing don't seem so hard, ain't like I'm a fucking retard!"
— Leanne Taylor
"Man, why're you putting her tits in your pants?"
— Leanne Taylor, ("Empathy Is a Boner Killer")
"He's a guard, not a person."
— Leanne Taylor, ("Storm-y Weather")
"If you say "bean leaves" one more time, I'm going to punch you in the fuck-hole"
— Leanne to Brook Soso ("Empathy Is a Boner Killer")
"Man, I wish I had a phone to record this shit."
— Leanne Taylor, ("A Whole Other Hole")

Gallery[]

Season One[]

"Tit Punch"[]

[]

Trivia[]

  • Her dream job is as a marine biologist, as she mentions in "Looks Blue, Tastes Red". However, this seem to be solely because she wants to swim with dolphins.
  • In her childhood, she was once a girl scout in troup 247 where she was taught how to use tampons, as she mentions in "Can't Fix Crazy".
  • She doesn’t know how to drive ("Storm-y  Weather")


Appearances[]

Navigation[]

Inmate Navigation
Maximum Security Galina Reznikov  •  Lorna Morello  •  Tasha Jefferson  •  Nicky Nichols  •  Frieda Berlin  •  Irene Cabrera  •  Marisol Gonzales  •  Dayanara Diaz  •  Rosalie Deitland  •  Antoinetta Kerson   •  Annalisa Damiva  •  Raquel Munoz  •  Tina Swope  •  Alana Dwight  •  Nicole Eckelcamp  •  Beth Hoefler  •  Maria Ruiz  •  Suzanne Warren  •  Adeola Chinede  •  Charlene Teng  •  Lolly Whitehill  •  Shruti Chambal  •  Elsie  •  Cathy  •  Marie Brock  •  Gail Abbot  •  Silka Webb  •  Aimee Sandoval  •  Amy Roth  •  Kelly Lee Glenna  •  Calloway  •  Claire St. John  •  Mandy Walsh Baker  •  Sally Jo  •  Juanita Vazquez  •  Crystal Tawney  •  Gladys Watkins  •  The Brown Twins  •  Alice Hutton  •  Claudette Pelage  •  Erica Taslitz  •  Aleida Diaz  •  Tali Grapes
FDC Cleveland Alex Vause  •  Carrie Black  •  Carmen Aziza  •  Helen Van Maele  •  Erica Jones  •  Leanne Taylor  •  Angie Rice  •  Janae Watson  •  Alison Abdullah  •  Kasey Sankey  •  Brook Soso  •  Anita DeMarco  •  Gina Murphy  •  Norma Romano
Metropolitan Detention Center Corrine Hill  •  Joyce  •  Felicia  •  Araceli  •  Darius McRae  •  Mazall
Unknown prison Michelle Carreras  •  Brandy Epps  •  Jennifer Digori  •  Stephanie Hapakuka  •  Rhea Boyle  •  Shelly Ginsberg  •  Lea Guerrera  •  Randolita  •  Reema Pell  •  Jeanie Babson  •  Jayne Cooke  •  Emily Germann  •  Ramona Contreras  •  Irene Rosario   •  White Cindy   •  Voth   •  Annette   •  Danita   •  Madison Murphy
Last seen in Minimum Security Irma Lerman  •  Annie Valdez  •  Loretta Fisher
Released inmates Piper Chapman  •  Stella Carlin  •  Mercy Valduto  •  Sara Rice  •  Linda Ferguson  •  Sophia Burset  •  Jane Ingalls  •  Jimmy Cavanaugh  •  Judy King  •  George Mendez  •  Cesar Velazquez  •  Cindy Hayes  •  Gloria Mendoza  •  Blanca Flores
Deceased inmates Poussey Washington  •  Yvonne Parker  •  Tricia Miller  •  Maureen Kukudio  •  Carol Denning  •  Barbara Denning  •  Rosa Cisneros  •  Dominga Duarte  •  Tiffany Doggett
Deported inmates Maritza Ramos  •  Karla Córdova  •  Shani Abboud  •  Swapna Majumdar  •  Dario Zuniga
ICE inmates Santos Chaj  •  Mei Chang  •  Efua Onagbeboma
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