Adler graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and pursued a master's degree in Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Before completing her thesis, she began her professional acting career working with the internationally renowned theater collaborative, Mabou Mines.
[1] She continued to work in New York City's off-Broadway theater community, most notably in the title role of Richard Foreman's Obie Award-winning play Benita Canova, John Guare's Lydie Breeze, and Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.
In 1995, Adler won an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress, for her role in the off-Broadway play The Boys in the Basement.
[2][3] She made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally's Deuce, directed by Michael Blakemore.