Actress In response to the growing
AIDS crisis of the 1980s, Edelstein wrote, composed and starred in an original musical called
Positive Me which she performed at
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City, receiving many accolades. She followed that with a short stint hosting MTV's
Awake on the Wild Side in 1990, then began working in earnest as an actress. She got her SAG card appearing as a backstage make-up artist in
Oliver Stone's
Jim Morrison biography
The Doors, and then landed a quick series of guest roles on several popular comedies, including
Mad About You,
Wings,
The Larry Sanders Show, and
Sports Night, where she played a sports reporter who claimed to be a former lover of
Josh Charles' character whom he did not remember. Perhaps most famous from this time was her appearances on
Seinfeld, where she played
George Costanza's girlfriend in the episodes "
The Mango" and "
The Masseuse." , which halted the production of
House. Bigger roles in TV dramas soon followed, among them the
lesbian sister on ABC's
Relativity (1996); a high-priced
call girl turned
Rob Lowe's date on
The West Wing (1999); a
transgender woman on
Ally McBeal (2000); and Ben Covington's (
Scott Speedman) girlfriend on
Felicity (2001). She also continued to land guest-star spots on such shows as
ER,
Frasier,
Just Shoot Me!,
Without a Trace, and
Judging Amy, as well as small parts in the films
What Women Want,
Keeping the Faith,
As Good as It Gets, and
Daddy Day Care. From 2004 to 2011, Edelstein portrayed
Lisa Cuddy, the
Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and frequent adversary, friend, and eventual girlfriend of title character
Gregory House (
Hugh Laurie) on
Fox's TV series
House. Edelstein has often spoken fondly of her experiences on the show and fellow cast and crew, especially her friendship and strong working relationship with Laurie. In May 2011, Edelstein announced that she would not return for the
eighth and final season of
House. Starting in June 2011, she joined the cast of
The Good Wife, where she played lawyer Celeste Serrano. She guest-starred in
Scandal in 2013, and later three episodes of the ABC series
Castle. In 2014, Edelstein landed the lead role of Abby McCarthy in the
Bravo series ''
Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce,'' an hour-long dramedy loosely based on the book series by
Vicki Iovine focusing on the lives of newly divorced, mid-life women. It ran for five seasons in which she got to expand her creative participation by becoming a producer, writer, and director on the series. In 2018, Edelstein joined the cast of
ABC's
The Good Doctor in season two as Dr. Marina Blaize in a recurring role. This reunited her with
House creator
David Shore as well as with
Richard Schiff, who played her father on
Relativity. Edelstein then joined the award-winning
The Kominsky Method, a
Netflix series that debuted in November 2018, playing the drug-addled daughter of
Alan Arkin and working alongside such actors such as
Michael Douglas,
Paul Reiser and
Chuck Lorre. During that time she also reunited with
Rob Lowe, playing his ex-wife Gwyneth Morgan, and mother of TK Strand (
Ronen Rubenstein) on the ABC drama series
9-1-1: Lone Star. She played a Holocaust survivor and adoptive mother in the Canadian indigenous TV drama
Little Bird, which was nominated for 19 Canadian Screen Awards
. Edelstein is also a
voice actress. Her roles include
Mercy Graves in the
DC Animated Universe, Sharri Rothberg in
American Dad!, Kya in
The Legend of Korra, and a guest role as Alexis in
King of the Hill.
Other appearances Edelstein is a supporter of
Best Friends Animal Society, of which she is an ambassador. She supports human rights organizations and is a patron of the arts. She has appeared in numerous magazines, including the September 2010 cover of
H magazine. She posed for
PETA in an ad promoting vegetarianism, a diet she has followed for most of her life. == Art ==