Kashian, who is of Armenian descent, was born in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised by her father, Elliot, and her stepmother, Nancy, along with her four older brothers and one older sister. She graduated from South Milwaukee High School in 1983. Kashian discovered her love of stand-up comedy while attending The University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was soon given stage time at a club operated by Bill Kinison, the brother of Sam Kinison, five nights a week. She has also acted appearing the TV seriesMurphy Brown and appeared in a few feature films such as Bam Bam and Celeste and recently . Kashian has had a half-hour special on Comedy Central and has appeared on CBS, NBC, and the nationally syndicated Radio/TV show Bob And Tom. She tours internationally, spending approximately 25 weeks a year on the road, and has entertained US troops stationed in Africa and the Middle East several times. Her album It is Never Going to be Bread was named as one of the top comedy albums of 2010 by Amazon.com. After living in Minneapolis, Kashian moved to Los Angeles and resides in Van Nuys with her husband, Andy Ashcraft. She is good friends with Maria Bamford and they often perform together, both in Los Angeles and on the road.
Podcast
In August 2006, Kashian began hosting a podcast, Dork Forest Radio, later The Dork Forest, with new episodes being released once or twice a week. Initially on the BlogTalkRadio network and co-hosted by comedian Joe Wilson, it was for several years transmitted live from her house in Van Nuys and, after leaving BlogTalkRadio, pre-recorded in her living room for transmission. The show features "dork on dork dialog" between Kashian and her guests about their favorite obsessions—commonly referred to by Kashian as 'dorkdoms'. Guests have included Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman, James Urbaniak, Jimmy Pardo, Aisha Tyler, and Mary-Lynn Rajskub. Fans of the showrefer to themselves as "Rangers Of The Dork Forest". In 2010, the podcast changed from a live format to pre-recorded, with superior audio quality and a new theme song, "Welcome to The Dork Forest", written by Mike Ruekberg. In 2011, Kashian recorded her first Dork Forest with a club or theater audience attending, with subsequent "live" episodes including those posted on August 12, 2016 and September 7, 2016. In early 2016, Kashian and fellow comic Laurie Kilmartin began a new podcast produced by Nerdist Industries called "The Jackie and Laurie Show". The two primarily discuss stand-up comedy in LA and on the road, occasionally covering harassment and the unequal treatment of female comics, Kilmartin's job as a staff writer on the late-night circuit, and Kilmartin's multi-generational family living situation.
