Tanja Melendez Lynch was born and raised in New York She grew up in Cedarhurst Long Island and graduated from Lawrence High School Her taste for acting and comedy came from her vivacious childhood being the youngest of four children born to her Puerto Rican father Jorge and her German mother Monika She continued on to study at the University of Massachusetts Amerst MA where she met her husband and pursued her Master Degree at Salem State College Salem MA She has two daughters