Aya Cash

Cash was born in San Francisco, California, to poet and novelist Kim Addonizio and Buddhist teacher Eugene Cash. On her mother's side, she is the granddaughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and sports writer Bob Addie. Her father's family is Jewish, while her mother is Catholic. Cash has described herself as Jewish, and explained that their surname "was originally something like 'CH-irsch'."

Cash is an alumna of the San Francisco School of the Arts. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, in partnership with the Guthrie Theater Actor Training Program. She then moved to New York City, where she began her acting career. For years, she struggled financially and worked as a full-time waitress to make ends meet.