Actress Elizabeth Anne "Lizzy" Caplan was born in Los Angeles, California, to Barbara (Bragman), a political aide, and Richard Caplan, a lawyer. She has two older siblings, Julie and Benjamin, and was raised in a Jewish household. Her mother was a cousin of publicist
Howard Bragman. Caplan was educated at Alexander Hamilton High School, where she showed an interest in acting and was cast in school plays.
After graduating, Caplan made her onscreen debut in the TV movie
From Where I Sit (2000). Other roles followed in TV shows such as
Freaks and Geeks (1999),
Smallville (2001) and
The Pitts (2003). Caplan made her big screen debut with a small role in
Orange County (2002) and went on to play Janis Ian in the hit
Mean Girls (2004). Further successes include
Cloverfield (2008),
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and
127 Hours (2010).
More recently, Caplan has played Virginia Johnson in the television series
Masters of Sex (2013), for which she received an Emmy nomination. Her 2010s film work includes co-starring in
The Interview (2014), opposite
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in
The Night Before (2015), and alongside
Jesse Eisenberg,
Dave Franco,
Woody Harrelson, and
Daniel Radcliffe in
Now You See Me 2 (2016).