Bio
Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright best known for her role as Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, in the television drama series House.
Edelstein was born to Jewish parents Alvin and Bonnie Edelstein in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Her father is currently a doctor in New Jersey.
One of three children, she was raised in Wayne, New Jersey and moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study theatre at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Fine Arts.
While living in New York, she became involved in the club scene known 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 James St. James, who briefly refers to Edelstein in his 2003 book Party Monster.
After being dubbed a "celebutante" by Newsweek magazine during her club kid days, 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 early '90s.
She was quickly cast as a VJ on Awake on the Wild Side for MTV, and guest roles on Mad About You, Wings, and The Larry Sanders Show soon followed.
Edelstein went on to appear on some of the most popular shows on television, with recurring roles on Seinfeld (as George Costanza's frustrated girlfriend), The West Wing (as Sam Seaborn's date turned high-priced call-girl), Ally McBeal (as a male-to-female transsexual), and Felicity (as Ben's girlfriend), and a regular roles on ABC's Relativity (as David Conrad's lesbian sister) and Leap of Faith.
She has also completed guest stints on shows including ER, Frasier, Without a Trace and Judging Amy, and 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, 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 titular character Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on the hit show House.
Edelstein currently resides in a century-old home in Los Angeles with her cat and three rescue dogs. She is a vegan and an avid practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga.
She's currently dating Finnish yoga instructor Petri Räisänen. They met in a yoga class in New York where they had a common instructor.
She frequently volunteers for the Best Friends Animal Society. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, painting and composing music.