Lisa Edelstein

Lisa Edelstein (/ˈliːsə ˈɛdəlstiːn/; born May 21, 1966)[1] is an American actress and playwright. Edelstein is known for playing Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the Fox medical drama series House. Between 2014 and 2018, she starred as Abby McCarthy in the Bravo series Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.

Edelstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children in a Jewish family led by Bonnie and Alvin Edelstein. Her father worked as a pediatrician at Chilton Memorial Hospital.[2] She was raised in Wayne, New Jersey,[3] and attended Wayne Valley High School, graduating in 1984.[4]

At 16, Edelstein was a cheerleader for the New Jersey Generals. Edelstein participated in a protest against poor working conditions. She said she felt they were treated “like hookers” and helped organize a cheerleader walkout.[5]

She moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study theatre at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.[6] 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 celebutant James St. James, who briefly refers to Edelstein in his 1999 book Disco Bloodbath.[7] Her Lisa E. persona was the focus of a feature article by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times in 1986