Asha Sundararaman was born to a white American mother and an Indian father in Palo Alto, California. She was raised in California, Indiana, Canada, and Nigeria. Sundararaman received a B.A. in Africana studies and theatre studies from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and an M.A. in international studies and diplomacy from the University of London in England. Sundararaman lived in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn and worked as the volunteer coordinator for Orbis International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing and treating blindness in developing countries.