Background
Adelstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1969, to a Reform Jewish family.
Adelstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1969, to a Reform Jewish family.
Prior to his profesional acting career, Adelstein attended the progressive Francis West. Parker School, then Bowdoin College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in English.
In addition to supporting roles in films such as Intolerable Cruelty and Memoirs of a Geisha, he is also known for his current recurring role as Leo Bergen on American Broadcasting Company"s Scandal, and as Jake Novak in the current Bravo series Girlfriends" Guide to Divorce. He began his career in theatre, working with New Crime Productions, a company founded by John Cusack, and later with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Making his film debut in 1990 in The Grifters, Adelstein went on to appear in several television series which include Cupid, Emergency, Without a Trace and Scrubs and to have a number of significant supporting roles in films such as Bedazzled (2000), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and Be Cool (2005).
Interestingly, though he played the role of mysterious government operative Paul Kellerman, he had originally auditioned for the role of protagonist Lincoln Burrows.
When he left the show in 2007, he joined the regular cast of medical drama Private Practice where he stayed for the show"s entire six season run. After the series finale in 2013, he has more recently had a recurring role on Scandal, which he has continued into 2014.
Currently his main role is as Jake Novak, the husband of Abby McCarthy (Lisa Edelstein) in Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, which premiered in late 2014 as the first scripted original series for Bravo.
In 2005, he received his most significant role to date as a member of the regular cast of the suspenseful television series Prison Break.