Edelman was born in
Boston to Cheryl, a real estate lawyer, and
Elazer R. Edelman, a biomedical engineer,
cardiologist, and professor. He has two brothers, Austin, and
Israeli Olympian Adam Edelman. He was raised in
Brookline, Massachusetts. He began performing stand-up at age 15. He attended and graduated from
Maimonides School in Brookline, a
modern Orthodox Jewish day school. A baseball fan, he has worked for the
Boston Red Sox and
Los Angeles Dodgers. Edelman grew up in a
modern Orthodox Jewish family and, following high school, spent a year in a
yeshiva in
Jerusalem. During his time there, he helped to establish the city's first comedy club,
Off the Wall Comedy. In 2008, The photographer Mario Tama took his photo during graduation, which was featured in his special
Millennial. During college, he continued to perform stand-up and later joined
Upright Citizens Brigade. His show
Millennial won the
Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer at the 2014
Edinburgh Festival Fringe, His 2018 show,
Just For Us, was nominated for the Best Show award at the Edinburgh Fringe. He has appeared in the UK on television shows such as
The John Bishop Show,
Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, Live from the BBC,
Roast Battle, and contributed several anecdotes about his experiences as a comedian to the 2015 book
Off the Mic, by
Deborah Frances-White and
Marsha Shandur. He has done a
BBC Radio 4 comedy series called ''Alex Edelman's Peer Group''. As a comedy writer, he has contributed to the American television shows
The Great Indoors (2016–2017) and
Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020). Edelman was the head writer for
Saturday Night Seder, a virtual celebrity
Passover seder held during the
COVID-19 pandemic. He also trained rabbis to infuse humor into the
High Holiday services as part of the Jewish communal response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. As an actor, Edelman starred as Adam Cooper in the
Peacock mockumentary series
The Paper, which is based on
The Office. He is also credited as a writer on the series. == Personal life ==