Moshe Kasher

Moshe Kasher
Kasher in 2008, photographed by Frankie Norstad
Birth name	Mark Moshe Kasher
Born	(1979-07-06) July 6, 1979 (age 37) Queens, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, webcast
Nationality	American
Education	University of California, Santa Barbara
Years active	2001–present
Genres	Observational comedy, black comedy, surreal humour
Subject(s)	Everyday life, Human sexuality, self-deprecation, religion, race, politics of the United States
Spouse	Natasha Leggero (m. 2015)
Website	moshekasher.com

Mark Moshe Kasher (born July 6, 1979) is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in the Los Angeles area. He is the author of the 2012 memoir Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16.

In 2009, iTunes named Kasher "Best New Comic" and his comedy album Everyone You Know Is Going to Die, and Then You Are! was ranked one of the top 20 comedy albums on iTunes that same year. He was also named "Comic to Watch in 2010" by Punchline Magazine.

Born in Queens, New York, Kasher moved to Oakland, California with his mother and brother when he was one year old, and lived mostly on disability assistance and food stamps. His parents split up when he was 9; his father remained in New York and Kasher visited him regularly until his death — Kasher was 20 at the time.

Kasher grew up in North Oakland's Temescal and the Piedmont Avenue neighborhoods. A son of deaf parents, Kasher worked as a sign-language interpreter from the age of 17. His parents met at the World Games for the Deaf in 1967. His father, Steven, was born to secular, communist Jewish parents. Kasher's paternal grandfather was Yiddish writer Duvid Kasher. Steven was a painter when he met Kasher's mother, but later became a Hasidic Jew in the Satmar community in Brooklyn. He was later diagnosed with Gaucher's disease. Kasher's brother is a rabbi.

In his autobiography Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16, Kasher wrote about having been moved in and out of mental institutions from the age of 4 and using drugs from the ages of 12 to 16. He was kicked out of four different high schools. In an interview with SanDiego.com, Kasher described himself as "pretty straight edge," stating that he has been clean "since I was very young." He earned his G.E.D. at age 16 and later became a sign-language interpreter.