Lisa Edelstein

About Lisa Edelstein

Lisa Edelstein (pronounced /ˈliːsə ˈɛdəlstiːn/ "LEE-suh EDDLE-steen"; born May 21, 1967) is an award-winning American actress and playwright. She currently stars as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the critically acclaimed drama House.

Lisa Edelstein was born to Jewish parents Alvin and Bonnie Edelstein in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 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. She moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study theatre at New York University's 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 Downtown" by writer and fellow celebutante James St. James, who briefly refers to Edelstein in his 1999 book Disco Bloodbath.

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 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 and Seinfeld, where she played George Costanza's frustrated girlfriend.