Lisa Edelstein

Lisa Edelstein
Edelstein at the Fox House Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2007, May 2007
Born	(1966-05-21) May 21, 1966 (age 50) Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation	Actress, playwright
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Robert Russell (m. 2014)

Lisa Edelstein (/ˈliːsə ˈɛdəlstiːn/; born May 21, 1966) is an American actress and playwright best known for playing Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the Fox medical drama series House. Since 2014, she stars as Abby McCarthy in the Bravo series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.

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. The youngest of three children in a Jewish family, she was raised in Wayne, New Jersey, and attended Wayne Valley High School, graduating in 1984.

At 16, Edelstein was a cheerleader for Donald Trump's 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.