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 Read more...

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 Read more...

Edelstein currently resides in a home built in 1913 in Los Angeles with her cat and three rescue dogs. She is a vegetarian and an avid practitioner of Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga. She frequently volunteers for the Best Friends Animal Society. In her spare time she enjoys writing, painting and composing music.