The studio was originally constructed for Famous Players–Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district.

Paramount used the Astoria studio heavily in the early years of talking pictures, primarily for short subjects starring New York-based stage and radio performers: Burns and Allen, Eddie Cantor, Tom Howard, Ethel Merman, Rudy Vallee, Lillian Roth, and many others.

All the films starring tango icon Carlos Gardel made in the United States were shot at Astoria Studios.

The last theatrical films produced at Astoria were a series of short Robert Benchley comedies released by Paramount between 1940 and 1942.

Television shows filmed at the studio include Sesame Street, Succession, Orange Is The New Black,[13] Onion News Network, Johnny and the Sprites, Bear in the Big Blue House, Between the Lions, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Oobi, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, and its successor Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?

Other projects recorded at the studios have included Judge Judy, Power of 10, The Cosby Show, Cosby, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Swans Crossing, Law & Order, Million Dollar Password, the 2009 pilot of The $1,000,000 Pyramid, Video Power, Spin City, Generation Gap and Mariah Carey's MTV Unplugged.

WFAN, a local sports radio station owned by Audacy, was formerly based at the studio before moving to lower Manhattan in the fall of 2009.

The walls of the studio are lined with signed images of the performers who have worked in the studios, including Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, The Marx Brothers, Ginger Rogers, George Burns, Lena Horne, Ethel Merman, Paul Robeson, Lillian Gish, Claudette Colbert, Gloria Swanson, Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Diana Ross, and Jerry Orbach.Notes Further reading