Early life

Edelstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Bonnie and Alvin Edelstein. Her father is a pediatrician at Chilton Memorial Hospital (since retired). Her mother is a retired social worker. Her family is Jewish. The youngest of three children, she was raised in Wayne, New Jersey, and attended Wayne Valley High School, graduating in 1984.

At 16, Edelstein was a cheerleader for the New Jersey Generals. Edelstein encountered trouble when she organized a protest, because the team was forcing the cheerleaders to stand in bars while wearing their uniforms. Edelstein said she felt this was "akin to prostitution" and started a cheerleader strike.

She moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study theatre at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. While living in New York, she became involved in the club scene (known there only as "Lisa E.") and caused enough of a stir in the community to be dubbed New York City's "Queen of the Night" by writer and fellow celebutante James St. James, who briefly refers to Edelstein in his 1999 book Disco Bloodbath.

Career

Actress

After being dubbed a "celebutante" by The New York Times magazine during her club kid days Edelstein used her new-found celebrity to write, compose, and star in an original musical called Positive Me in response to the growing AIDS crisis of the 1980s. The play, performed at the La MaMa theatre in New York City, received many accolades. After a regrettable experience hosting Awake on the Wild Side for MTV in 1990, she appeared for a few seconds as a backstage make-up artist in the Jim Morrison biography The Doors followed by guest roles on several popular comedies, including Mad About You, Wings, and The Larry Sanders Show. On Sports Night, she played a sports reporter who claimed to be a former lover of Josh Charles's character whom he did not remember. On Seinfeld, she played George Costanza's frustrated girlfriend, the "Risotto Girl" (the only girlfriend of George's to appear in multiple episodes other than Susan Ross).

Bigger roles in TV dramas soon followed, among them the lesbian sister on ABC's Relativity (1996); a high-priced call girl turned Rob Lowe's date on The West Wing (1999); an assigned male at birth (AMAB) transgender woman on Ally McBeal (2000); and Ben Covington's (Scott Speedman) girlfriend on Felicity (2001). She also continued to land guest-star spots on such shows as ER, Frasier, Just Shoot Me!, Without a Trace, and Judging Amy, as well as small parts in the films What Women Want, Keeping the Faith, As Good as It Gets, and Daddy Day Care.

From 2004-2011, she portrayed her biggest and most notable role to date, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and frequent adversary, friend, and eventual girlfriend of title character Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on Fox's TV series House. Edelstein has often spoken fondly of her experiences on the show and fellow cast and crew, especially her friendship and strong working relationship with colleague Hugh Laurie.

In May 2011, Edelstein announced that she would not return for the eighth and final season of House. In June 2011, she guest-starred in a three-episode arc of The Good Wife third season as attorney Celeste Serrano. She guest-starred in Scandal in 2013, and later three episodes of the ABC series Castle.

She currently stars as the lead role of Abby McCarthy in the Bravo series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, a one-hour-long comedy-drama loosely based on the book series by Vicki Iovine and scheduled to premiere on December 2, 2014.

She has lent her voice to several animated programs, including King of the Hill, American Dad!, Superman: The Animated Series (as Mercy Graves, Lex Luthor's bodyguard, a role she later reprised in several episodes of Justice League), Legend of Korra (as Kya, Tenzin's sister) and the video game adaptation of Blade Runner (1997).

Other appearances

Edelstein is a passionate supporter of Best Friends Animal Society, of which she is an Ambassador. She supports human rights organizations and is a patron of the arts. She has appeared in numerous magazines, including the September 2010 cover of H magazine. She posed for PETA in an ad promoting vegetarianism, a diet she has followed for most of her life.

Personal life

On May 25, 2014, Edelstein married artist Robert Russell in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	The Doors	Makeup artist
1997	As Good as It Gets	Woman at table
1998	Susan's Plan	Penny Myers
1998	L.A. Without a Map	Sandra
1999	30 Days	Danielle
2000	Keeping the Faith	Ali Decker
2000	What Women Want	Dina
2003	Daddy Day Care	Crispin's mother
2005	Say Uncle	Sarah Faber
2013	She Loves Me Not	Amy
2016	Joshy	Claudia

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	L.A. Law	Francine Flicker	Episode: "My Friend Flicker"
1992	Mad About You	Lynne Stoddard	Episode: "Out of the Past"
1993	Good Advice	Robin	Episode: "The Kiss"
1993	Seinfeld	Karen	2 episodes
1993	Wings	Marsha Peebles	Episode: "Labor Pains"
1994	The Larry Sanders Show	Diane French	Episode: "The Mr. Sharon Stone Show"
1994	Wild Oats	Unknown	Episode: "Pilot"
1995-97	Almost Perfect	Patty Karp	9 episodes
1995	Partners	Cindy Wolfe	Episode: "Who's Afraid of Ron and Cindy Wolfe?"
1995	Superman: The Animated Series	Mercy Graves	8 episodes
1996	Ned & Stacey	Janine	Episode: "Friends and Lovers"
1996-97	Relativity	Rhonda Roth	17 episodes
1997	ER	Aggi Orton	Episode: "Ambush"
1998	Just Shoot Me!	Erin Simons	Episode: "Sewer!"
1998	Frasier	Caitlin	Episode: "Frasier Gotta Have It"
1998	Indiscreet	Beth Sussman	Television movie
1999	Sports Night	Bobbi Bernstein	3 episodes
1999-2000	The West Wing	Laurie "Brittany" Rollins	5 episodes
2000	Grosse Pointe	Shawn Shapiro	Episode: "Satisfaction"
2000-01	Ally McBeal	Cindy McCauliff	5 episodes
2001	Black River	Laura	Television movie
2001-02	Felicity	Lauren	6 episodes
2002	Obsessed	Charlotte	Television movie
2002	Leap of Faith	Patty	6 episodes
2003	A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster	Maeve Fox	Television movie
2003	Without a Trace	Dr. Lianna Sardo	Episode: "Moving On"
2003	The Practice	Diane Ward	2 episodes
2003	Justice League	Mercy Graves	2 episodes
2004	Judging Amy	Sylvia Danforth	Episode: "The Quick and the Dead"
2004-11	House	Lisa Cuddy	153 episodes People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Drama Actress Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2005	Justice League Unlimited	Mercy Graves	Episode: "Clash"
2005	Fathers and Sons	Irene	Television movie
2007	King of the Hill	Alexis	Episode: "The Powder Puff Boys"
2007-11	American Dad!	Sharri Rothberg	6 episodes
2008	Special Delivery	Maxine Carter	Television movie
2011	Childrens Hospital	Herself/Lisa Cuddy	Episode: "Run, Dr. Lola Spratt, Run!"
2011	The Good Wife	Celeste Serano	3 episodes
2011	Paul The Male Matchmaker	Jillian	Episode: "Know When You Are Not Ready"
2012	Blue-Eyed Butcher	Kelly Siegler	Television movie
2012	Elementary	Heather Van Owen	Episode: "The Long Fuse"
2013	House of Lies	Brynn	2 episodes
2013	Scandal	Sarah Stanner	Episode: "Top of the Hour"
2013	Castle	Rachel McCord	3 episodes
2013-14	The Legend of Korra	Kya	14 episodes
2014- present	Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce	Abby	Lead role; 13 episodes

Video Games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Blade Runner	Crystal Steele

Awards

• In 2005, she accepted the award for Television Series drama at the 10th Annual Satellite Awards for her portrayal of Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D.
• In 2011, she won the People's Choice Award for Best Drama Actress in a TV Series for her portrayal of Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]