Jonathan Alder was born in 1966 in a small farm town in New Jersey. Alder started making pottery at age 12 and has been designing ever since.

Jonathan Adler's pottery entered design-forward homes after his collection was picked up by Barney's in 1994. He now has over seven retail outlets from East Hamptom to Los Angeles.

In November 2005, Jonathan launched his first book My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living and in 2007 made his first appearance as a lead judge on the hit Bravo series Top Design.