Lisa Edelstein

Lisa plays Lisa— or should we say Dr. Lisa Cuddy— on the hit medical show House. She has been on a number of other doctor shows, too, including Presidio Med, L.A. Doctors, and ER.

You also may remember Lisa as Cindy from the hit legal show Ally McBeal. She has been on a number of other lawyer shows, too, including The Practice, Judging Amy, Family Law, and LA Law.

Or, you may remember Lisa as Lauren on Felicity (which was created by Jewish producer J.J. Abrams, who would go on to produce Alias and Lost.) She has been on a number of other hit comedies, too, (We see a pattern here!) including Almost Perfect, Sports Night, Seinfeld, Frasier, The Larry Sanders Show, Just Shoot Me, Mad About You, Cybil, and Wings.

Speaking of “wings,” Lisa also was Laurie on West Wing. She has done a cartoon voice or two, too. She has been Mercy Graves, Lex Luthor’s bodyguard, in the recent Justice League and Superman animations. She was on American Dad, too.

And speaking of "dads," Lisa was in the cute comedy Daddy Day Care, with Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin as two dads who try their hand at running a day care center.

Surprisingly, for all the TV work Lisa has done, her first role was in a movie! She has risen from roles from “assistant at studio” and “woman at table,” which is how most actors start, to characters with names. She was Danielle in 30 Days, and Dina in What Women Want (with Helen Hunt), and Ali in her most Jewish movie, Keeping the Faith. That one is about a rabbi in love, and it’s one of our Movies of the Month!

But Lisa’s proudest moment may be from earlier in her career, before TV and the movies. She wrote and starred in a play called Positive Me, one of the first works ever about AIDS. Lisa was born in New Jersey and studied acting in New York. She performed on Broadway and wrote the play about her experiences and friends in the New York theater scene. She still likes to write sometimes, and also paints and composes music.

Aside from the arts, Lisa’s biggest love is animals. She owns three dogs that she rescued from shelters, volunteers at an animal-protection organization, and is a vegan— she won’t even wear leather shoes!