Paul Adelstein

Paul Adelstein
Born	(1969-04-29) April 29, 1969 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Alma mater	Bowdoin College
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1990–present
Spouse	Liza Weil (2006–present)
Children	Josephine Adelstein

Paul Adelstein (born April 29, 1969) is an American television and film actor, best known for the role of Agent Paul Kellerman in the Fox television series Prison Break and his role as pediatrician Cooper Freedman in the ABC medical drama Private Practice. 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 ABC's Scandal, and as Jake Novak in the current Bravo series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.

Early life

Adelstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1969, to a Reform Jewish family. Prior to his profesional acting career, Adelstein attended the progressive Francis W. Parker School, then Bowdoin College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in English. He began his career in theatre, working with New Crime Productions, a company founded by John Cusack, and later with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Career

Making his film debut in 1990 in The Grifters, Adelstein went on to appear in several television series which include Cupid, ER, 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).

In 2005, he received his most significant role to date as a member of the regular cast of the suspenseful television series Prison Break. 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.

Personal life

Paul moved to Los Angeles in 2003 at the age of 34. "I've fallen in love with the city. I found it difficult at first, but like I said I was doing it in pretty small doses. By the time I had my own place I was pretty comfortable here, and now I love it. There's really no place in the world like Los Angeles, love it or hate it." Despite hailing from Chicago, Adelstein has been a fan and supporter since childhood of the NFL's Cleveland Browns.

In November 2006, Adelstein married actress Liza Weil, who played Paris Geller on Gilmore Girls. They had their first child in April 2010, a girl named Josephine Elizabeth Weil-Adelstein. Adelstein is also lead singer and guitarist of a band called Doris. The band was started in the late nineties and Adelstein has recorded several albums with them, singing and songwriting for the group. Adelstein is also a pianist and guitarist. His musical background was the cover story in the May/June 2012 issue of Making Music Magazine.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	The Grifters	Sailor - Young Paul
1997	Peoria Babylon	Brad Kessler
2000	Bedazzled	Bob/Roberto/Beach Jock/Sportscaster
2003	Intolerable Cruelty	Wrigley
2004	Lawrence Melm
	Bandwagon	Joe Rice
	Collateral	Fed #3
2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	Lieutenant Hutchins
	Be Cool	Hy Gordon
2009	Land of the Lost	Astronaut (voice)
	The Missing Person	Drexler Hewitt
	Little Fish, Strange Pond aka. Frenemy	Philly	direct-to-DVD
2010	Happy Sushi		short
2014	Return to Zero	Aaron	Main Role
2016	The Phenom	Scott Borwitz
	Mother's Day	Peter

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998–1999	Cupid	Mike	Television episodes (1x01, 1x02, 1x06, 1x07, 1x09, 1x11, 1x14)
1999	Turks	Officer Cliff Fowler	Television series
	ER	Hank Loman	Television episode (6x09)
2002	R.U.S./H.	Tom Epstein	Television movie
	ER		Television episode (8x17)
	Breaking News	Julian Kerbis	Television series
2002–2003	Hack	Sergeant Aldo Rossi	Television episodes (1x13, 1x14, 1x20, 2x04, 2x10)
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Steven Kellerman	Television episode (4x14)
	Partners and Crime		Television movie
	The Lyon's Den	Snyder	Television episode (1x09)
	Without a Trace	Dave	Television episode (2x05)
2004	Las Vegas	Alex Brooks	Television episode (2x11)
2005	Medium	Craig	Television episode (1x14)
	Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law	Murro	Television episode (3x02)
2005–2009	Prison Break	Paul Kellerman	Television series Series regular 46 episodes
2006	Nobody's Watching	Jeff Tucker	Television series
	Scrubs	Dr. Stone	Television episode (5x21)
2007	Grey's Anatomy	Cooper Freedman	Television episodes (3x22, 3x23)
2007–2013	Private Practice		Television series Series regular 111 episodes
2010	Glenn Martin DDS	Earl (voice)	Television episode ("Courtney's Pony")
2013-present	Scandal	Leo Bergen	Television series Recurring 16 episodes
2014-present	Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce	Jake Novak	Television series Series regular 13 episodes
2015	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Dr. Neil Alexander	Television episode ("Decaying Morality)

External links

• Paul Adelstein at IMDb
• Paul Adelstein at AllMovie
• paul-adelstein.net