Jacob was born and raised in
New Mexico to
Indian Malayali parents who immigrated from
Kerala,
India in 1968, the same year they were wed in an
arranged marriage. Because there were so few Indian Americans in New Mexico, people often assumed she was Native American, she told
Kirkus: "They all thought we were
Hopi or
Apache or
Mexican." When Jacob was 20, her parents fell in love, she wrote in an essay for
Vogue. Jacob wrote that their renewed relationship allowed her to form her own romantic relationship with filmmaker Jed Rothstein, whom she later married. She now lives in Brooklyn with Rothstein and their son. ==Education and career==