Ezra Edelman is the son of children's rights activist Marian Wright Edelman and Georgetown University law professor Peter B. Edelman. He has two brothers, Joshua, an educational administrator, and Jonah, co-founder and CEO of Stand for Children. Edelman graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. before going on to acquire his baccalaureate from Yale University. He is best known as the director of the 2010 HBO Sports documentary Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals, and the Emmy Award-winning Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush. He did a special on the former Big East Conference called Requiem for the Big East. Edelman also wrote and directed the 2016 five-part documentary series, O.J. Simpson: Made in America for ESPN's 30 for 30.