Aya Cash

Cash was born in San Francisco, California, on July 13, 1982,^[1] 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.^[2][3] Cash has described herself as Jewish,^[2] and explained that their surname "was originally something like 'CH-irsch'."^[2]

Cash is an alumna of the San Francisco School of the Arts.^[4] 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.^[5][6] 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.^[7]

Cash met writer and producer Josh Alexander^[2] when she was his waitress. They dated for seven years before marrying in 2012.^[15] They reside together in New York City.^[16][2]

Cash was raised Jewish, but no longer practices the religion, stating, "my mother is Catholic, my father is Jewish, but I was raised Jewish in a very not strict temple [...] then I chose, after my Bat Mitzvah, not to continue." Although she also mentioned that she has participated in Jewish holidays over the years, but not in many of them in recent years.^[17]

Cash said that she has a hawk tattooed on her back because she was told that Aya means "hawk" in Hebrew. However, when she visited Israel she was told that "Aya" (איה) is an archaic word for "hawk" (though it is, in fact, the Modern Hebrew word for "honey buzzard", a different bird of prey). Meanwhile, the word "aya" is widely used as the Israeli version of the interjection "ouch."^[2]

Cash is a celebrity ambassador for INARA, an NGO that helps war-wounded refugee children from Syria get medical help.^[18]