Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Lisa Edelstein

 
Who2 Biography: Lisa Edelstein, Actor
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Who2 Biographies

  • Born: 21 May 1967
  • Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
  • Best Known As: Dr. Lisa Cuddy on TV's House

Lisa Edelstein is a veteran of series television who plays Dr. Lisa Cuddy in the medical drama House (starring Hugh Laurie). Born in Boston, she grew up in New Jersey and moved to New York City in the mid-1980s to pursue a career in theater. She found regional fame as a party girl in New York's club scene, which she then parlayed into a career as an actress, first by producing her own stage production about AIDS, Positive Me (1989), then by landing a job as the host of MTV's short-lived daytime show, Awake on the Wild Side (1990, as Lisa E.). Since then she's made a handful of feature films and made her mark as a guest star on some of television's hottest shows. She has played love interests in Seinfeld (opposite Jason Alexander), The West Wing (opposite Rob Lowe) and Boston Legal (opposite James Spader), and had memorable roles in Ally McBeal (1997-2002, starring Calista Flockhart) and Felicity (1998-2002, starring Keri Russell). A brunette and blue-eyed beauty, Edelstein has played a number of sexually-adventurous characters over the years, but in 2004 she settled into the role of a serious hospital administrator in House. Her feature film roles include What Women Want (2000, starring Mel Gibson) and Daddy Day Care (2003, starring Eddie Murphy).

Her last name is pronounced "eddle-steen"... She was the voice of Mercy Graves in the animated series Superman (1996-2000), and has repeated the role in Justice League (2001)... Some sources list her birth year as 1966; she is a 1984 graduate of Wayne Valley High School in Wayne, New Jersey.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Actor: Lisa Edelstein
Top
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: May 21, 1967 in Wayne, New Jersey
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
  • Career Highlights: Black River, Indiscreet, Say Uncle
  • First Major Screen Credit: Indiscreet (1998)

Biography

Upon her election by The New York Times as a "top celebutante" in 1986 (due to her popularity in N.Y.C.'s club scene), then-19-year-old Lisa Edelstein reportedly grew wary of "fame for fame's sake" and spent years grounding her celebrity in a series of well-respected, if minor, acting assignments. She made a small-scale debut in a prestigious film -- the role of the makeup artist in Oliver Stone's controversial Jim Morrison biopic The Doors (1991) -- and thereafter was often pigeonholed in sitcom appearances, typically as a comically eccentric girlfriend or wife. This typecasting characterized Edelstein's appearances on Seinfeld, Mad About You, Sports Night, Frasier, and a myriad of other programs. There were exceptions, though, as the actress also starred on the short-lived but critically acclaimed drama Relativity in the mid-'90s as Rhonda Roth, a lesbian whose complex, non-sensationalized portrayal marked a step forward for homosexual characters on network TV. Edelstein also garnered recurring roles on such series as The West Wing (playing a law student whom Rob Lowe's character romances until he finds out she moonlights as a call girl), Felicity, and Ally McBeal (appearing as a transsexual who dates a lawyer played by James LeGros).

In-between bit parts in the big-screen comedies What Women Want (2000) and Daddy Day Care (2003), Edelstein received second billing on the sitcom Leap of Faith (2002), a kind of toned-down Sex and the City reworking for NBC (from the same producer), as Patty, the best friend of ad executive Faith Wardwell (Sarah Paulson). Unfortunately, that program failed to catch fire with the public, but Edelstein scored a lead role several years later on the hit medical drama House, in which she plays Dr. Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, who must constantly contend with the eccentricities and misanthropy of Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Lisa Edelstein
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Lisa Edelstein

Edelstein at the Fox House Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2007, September 2007
Born May 21, 1966 (1966-05-21) (age 43)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation Actress/Playwright
Years active 1990–present

Lisa Edelstein (pronounced /ˈliːsə ˈɛdəlstiːn/; born May 21, 1966) is an American Jewish actress and playwright.[1] She currently stars as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama, House M.D.

Contents

Early life

Edelstein was born to Alvin and Bonnie Edelstein in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father is a pediatrician in New Jersey at Chilton Memorial Hospital. One of three children, she was raised in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Wayne Valley High School, graduating in 1984.[2] 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 Downtown" by writer and fellow celebutante James St. James, who briefly refers to Edelstein in his 1999 book Disco Bloodbath.

Career

After being dubbed a "celebutante" by New York Times magazine during her club kid days,[3] Edelstein used her newfound celebrity to write, compose and star in an original musical called Positive Me in response to the growing AIDS crisis of the 1980s. After a brief stint hosting Awake on the Wild Side for MTV in 1990, she spent the early '90s appearing in guest roles on several popular comedies, including Mad About You, Wings, The Larry Sanders Show, Sports Night and Seinfeld, where she played George Costanza's frustrated girlfriend, the "Risotto Girl".

Bigger roles in TV dramas soon followed, among them the lesbian sister on ABC's Relativity in 1996; Rob Lowe's date turned high-priced call girl on The West Wing in 1999; a male-to-female transsexual on Ally McBeal in 2000 and Ben's girlfriend on Felicity in 2001. She also continued to land guest star spots on shows such as ER, Frasier, Just Shoot Me!, Without a Trace and Judging Amy.

The actress 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) and the 1997 video game adaptation of Blade Runner. Edelstein's film credits include What Women Want with Mel Gibson, Keeping the Faith with Ben Stiller, As Good as it Gets with Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt and Daddy Day Care with Eddie Murphy.

In 2004, she was cast as Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and frequent character foil to title character Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on Fox's hit show House, M.D..

She starred in Lifetime Movie Network's Special Delivery alongside Brenda Song.[4]

Personal life

Edelstein currently resides in Los Angeles with her cat and three rescue dogs.[5] She is a vegetarian[6] and an avid practitioner of Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga.[7] She frequently volunteers for the Best Friends Animal Society. In her spare time she enjoys writing, painting and composing music.[8]

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1991 The Doors Makeup Artist
1997 As Good as It Gets Woman at Table
1998 Susan's Plan Penny Myers
1999 30 Days Danielle
2000 Keeping the Faith Ali Decker
What Women Want Dina
2001 Black River Laura
2002 Obsessed Charlotte (imaginary friend)
2003 Daddy Day Care Crispin’s Mother
2005 Fathers and Sons Irene
Say Uncle Sarah Faber
2008 Special Delivery Maxine Carter

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1993 Seinfeld Karen 2 episodes
1995–1997 Almost Perfect Patty Karp 9 episodes
1996-1997 Relativity Rhonda Roth Episode 1 to Episode 17
Superman: The Animated Series Mercy Graves 8 episodes
1997 ER Aggi Orton "Ambush (S4E1)"
1998 Just Shoot Me! Erin Simons "Sewer!"
Frasier Caitlin "Frasier Gotta Have It"
1999 Sports Night Bobbi Bernstein 3 episodes
1999–2000 The West Wing Laurie "Brittany" Rollins 5 episodes
2000–2001 Ally McBeal Cindy McCauliff 5 episodes
2001–2002 Felicity Lauren 6 episodes
2002 Leap of Faith Patty Episode 1 to Episode 6
2003 Without a Trace Dr. Liana Sardo Moving On
The Practice Diane Ward 2 episodes
Justice League Mercy Graves 1 episode
2004 Judging Amy Sylvia Danforth "The Quick and the Dead"
2004–present House, M.D. Dr. Lisa Cuddy Regular cast member
2005 Justice League Unlimited Mercy Graves 1 episode

References

  1. ^ "Lisa Edelstein". Jewish Women International. http://www.jwmag.org/site/c.fhLOK0PGLsF/b.3604537/. Retrieved 11 October 2009. 
  2. ^ Rohan, Virginia. "North Jersey-bred and talented too", The Record (Bergen County), June 18, 2007. Accessed June 25, 2007. "Lisa Edelstein: Class of 1984, Wayne Valley High School"
  3. ^ James St. James. Party Monster. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
  4. ^ Kimberly Nordyke (January 15, 2008) House actress making "Delivery" for Lifetime Reuters. Accessed 2008-01-16.
  5. ^ The Dean of Medicine on TV’s House Is Often Called The Florence Nightingale of Dogs - March 2006
  6. ^ A Chat with Lisa Edelstein - September 4, 2006
  7. ^ Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga
  8. ^ FOX.com Biography

External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lisa Edelstein

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Lisa Edelstein biography from Who2.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lisa Edelstein".  Read more