About Elaine

Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld and she is also friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer.

Unlike the families of Jerry and George, Elaine's relatives never had large parts on the show. Also unlike the other characters, she was not a native of New York, having grown up in the upscale Baltimore suburb of Towson, Maryland.

Elaine was one of the few characters who worked steady jobs throughout the show's entire run, mostly as a writer or editor. During season two to season five, she worked at Pendant Publishing with her boss Mr. Lippman, where she served as a copy editor before losing her job at the end of the fifth season when the company went bankrupt. She then became a personal assistant to the eccentric Justin Pitt, starting in "The Chaperone", but later got fired. She then met J. Peterman on the street and became an editor at his J. Peterman Catalog, where she would remain employed for the rest of the show's run.