Ben Edelman

Ben Edelman is an American actor and producer. He originated the role of Charlie Luther Mason in Joshua Harmon's Admissions at Lincoln Center Theater in 2018, for which he received an Obie Award for performance and the Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater, and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. In 2023, he alternated in the role of poet Max Ritvo in Sarah Ruhl's Letters from Max, a ritual and received a second Drama Desk nomination, shared with Zane Pais and Sinan Refik Zafar, for Outstanding Music in a Play. Edelman also produced the documentary feature Your Friend, Memphis, which premiered at the 2022 South by Southwest festival.

Early life and education

Edelman grew up in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He developed an interest in acting while attending a summer camp where he participated in theatre, music, magic, and other performance activities. Between his first and second years there, he studied at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England.

In 2017, Edelman played Danny Saunders in a four-actor production of The Chosen at Long Wharf Theatre, adapted by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok.

Edelman played Charlie, a white prep-school student whose rejection from Yale tests his parents' progressive ideals, in the 2018 world premiere of Admissions at Lincoln Center Theater. Daniel Aukin directed a cast that also included Jessica Hecht, Andrew Garman, Ann McDonough, and Sally Murphy. Critics paid particular attention to Edelman's extended monologues: reviews in Vulture, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, and New York Stage Review described his performance favorably.

For Admissions, Edelman received a 2018 Obie Award for performance and the Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater. He was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. He reprised the role in the play's 2019 West End production at Trafalgar Studios, becoming the only member of the New York cast to transfer with the production. Reviewing the London staging for The Guardian, Michael Billington found Edelman's later work than his opening monologue most effective.

In 2022, Edelman appeared as Baal, the former husband of playwright-performer Liba Vaynberg's character, in the world premiere of The Gett at Rattlestick Theater.

The following year, he appeared with Hecht and Zane Pais in the world premiere of Ruhl's Letters from Max, a ritual at Signature Theatre Company. Edelman and Pais alternated as Ritvo and as a supporting angel figure; the actor not playing Ritvo supplied live musical accompaniment. Reviews in Time Out New York and New York Stage Review praised aspects of his interpretation, with the latter describing his readings of Ritvo's poems as electric. Edelman, Pais, and Zafar were nominated for the 2023 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play.

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Work Result 2018 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Admissions Obie Award Performance Dorothy Loudon Award Excellence in the Theater 2023 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Music in a Play Letters from Max, a ritual