Lisa Edelstein

Lisa Edelstein (pronounced /ˈliːsə ˈɛdəlstiːn/; born May 21, 1967) is an American actress and playwright. She currently stars as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama House.

Early life and education

Edelstein was born to a Jewish family in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Alvin and Bonnie Edelstein. Her father is a pediatrician in New Jersey at Chilton Memorial Hospital. The youngest of three children, she was raised in Wayne, New Jersey.

Edelstein 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 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

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

After being dubbed a "celebutante" by New York Times 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.^{[citation needed]} 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" (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 in 1996; high-priced call girl turned Rob Lowe's date 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 (asMercy Graves, Lex Luthor's bodyguard, a role she later reprised in several episodes of Justice League) and the 1997 video game adaptation ofBlade Runner. Edelstein's film credits include What Women Want with Mel Gibson, Keeping the Faith with Ben Stiller, a cameo in As Good as it Gets with Jack Nicholson and 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 and love interest to title character Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on Fox's hit show House.

Edelstein starred in Lifetime Movie Network's Special Delivery alongside Brenda Song.

Edelstein appeared on the September 2010 cover of H mag, photographed by Joey Shaw.

In 2011, she won the People's Choice Awards's best Drama Actress in a TV Series for her portrayal of Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the hit show House, MD.

Personal life

Edelstein currently resides in Los Angeles with her cat and three rescue dogs. She is a vegetarian and an avid practitioner of Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga. She dated her Finnish yoga instructor Petri Räisänen from 2007 to 2008. She frequently volunteers for the Best Friends Animal Society, Save the Children, Planned Parenthood, and amfAR. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, painting and composing music.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1991	The Doors	Makeup Artist
1997	As Good as It Gets	Woman at Table
1998	Indiscreet	Beth Sussman
	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 hot doctor)
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
1992	L.A. Law		"My Friend Flicker"
	Mad About You	Lynne Stoddard	"Out of the Past"
1993	Good Advice	Robin	"The Kiss"
	Seinfeld	Karen	2 episodes
	Wings	Marsha Peebles	"Labor Pains"
1994	The Larry Sanders Show	Diane French	"The Mr. Sharon Stone Show"
	Wild Oats		Episode #1.1
1995	Almost Perfect	Patty Karp	9 episodes (1995–1997)
	Partners	Cindy Wolfe	"Who's Afraid of Ron and Cindy Wolfe?"
	Relativity	Rhonda Roth	Episodes 1–17 (1996–1997)
	Superman: The Animated Series	Mercy Graves	8 episodes
1996	Ned & Stacey	Janine	"Friends and Lovers"
1997	ER	Aggi Orton	"Ambush"
1998	Just Shoot Me!	Erin Simons	"Sewer!"
	Frasier	Caitlin	"Frasier Gotta Have It"
1999	Sports Night	Bobbi Bernstein	3 episodes
	The West Wing	Laurie "Brittany" Rollins	5 episodes (1999–2000)
2000	Ally McBeal	Cindy McCauliff	5 episodes (2000–2001)
	Grosse Pointe	Shawn Shapiro	"Satisfaction"
2001	Felicity	Lauren	6 episodes (2001–2002)
2002	Leap of Faith	Patty	Episodes 1–6
2003	Without a Trace	Dr. Liana Sardo	"Moving On"
	The Practice	Diane Ward	2 episodes
	Justice League	Mercy Graves	2 episodes
2004	Judging Amy	Sylvia Danforth	"The Quick and the Dead"
	House	Dr. Lisa Cuddy	Regular cast member (2004 – present)
2005	Justice League Unlimited	Mercy Graves	"Clash"
2007	King of the Hill	Alexis	"The Powder Puff Boys"
2010	American Dad!	Shari	2 Episodes

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