For Aya Cash, Giant Is More Than a Broadway Debut

Hometown: San Francisco, California

Current role: Aya Cash makes her Broadway debut as Jessie Stone in Giant.

Previous roles: Cash starred in the FX series You're the Worst and played Stormfront in Amazon Prime Video's The Boys, as well as in the upcoming prequel Vought Rising. She previously portrayed Jessie Stone in Giant's 2025 West End transfer and has performed in a number of original plays off-Broadway, including at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theatre Company and Rattlestick Theater.

An Education
Theater first entered Cash's orbit when she enrolled at an arts high school, a decision made in part because she didn't receive a scholarship to her first choice institution. "My parents said, 'You should do something in the arts because you'll get beat up in public school,'" Cash deadpans. Having done girls chorus for years, she intended to pursue singing, but when her best friend chose to audition for the theater department, Cash followed suit. "Girls chorus was very regimented and I didn't like uniforms. I auditioned with a monologue from In the Boom Boom Room by David Rabe—which I believe is about a teenage stripper—and got in. So that's how my acting career started," she reveals. "I remember rehearsing it every single night with my mother, which, looking back, some red flags there."

The Play's The Thing
Cash soon discovered Shakespeare, "nerding out" over the works and entering nationwide competitions. Her first monologue was from Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which she didn't realize was comedy. She recalls "getting a bunch of laughs, thinking I was very serious, and realizing maybe this is where I should be pointing." Her talents brought her to nationals two years in a row, and both times she was flown to Lincoln Center to perform. "I didn't win, but I thought acting could also be a way to travel. I didn't have money growing up and I thought, 'This is going to be a way to see the world.'" In what would become quite the full-circle moment, Emily Bergl—on Broadway at the time—spoke to the finalists while the judges were deliberating. "She said, 'Like most of you, I did this competition and I didn't win.' And I just remember being like, 'What a gift that is to tell these kids that.' And now I'm on Broadway. See how I brought that around?"

Scratching The Itch
After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a BFA in acting, Cash moved to New York City to begin her career. Working full-time as a waitress in an attempt to make ends meet, Cash made her off-Broadway debut in 2006 in Bruce Norris' The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Anna D. Shapiro. "Looking back, wow, I cannot believe that that was how I got my Equity card, because that was one of the best shows I have ever done, with an incredible cast," she gushes. "Jayne Houdyshell, Mia Barron, Christopher Evan Welch, Reg Rogers, Peter Jay Fernandez—just this incredible group of people doing incredible work. I got lucky the first time." She still thinks fondly of her character, Kalina, whose performance was inspired by a woman she lived with in high school. "My mom and I ended up in a three bedroom, but we couldn't afford that," she explains. "The woman renting, Yelena, was a hairdresser who I would let do crazy stuff to my hair. She was a loud, boisterous, wild Russian lady, and I based Kalina off her." Cash also cites her experience in 2008's From Up Here by Liz Flahive at MTC alongside Julie White as "another one that was very special."

There's No Place Like Home
Returning to the medium that first drew her to acting is something Cash never takes for granted. At the same time, it’s vital for her happiness. Her breakout came in 2014, starring on the television show You're The Worst as the self-destructive Gretchen Cutler. The series ran for five seasons. "I started doing film and TV because I was just broke," Cash admits. "I couldn't afford to continue to do theater. I saw the writing on the wall, which is that you could have this incredible theater career and not ever be able to pay your bills. I was making more money waitressing than I was acting. So I got into it for that sort of cynical reason." While she's "learned to love film and TV," it's theater that fills her cup. "My agents are so supportive of any time I do a play, because I immediately book something great on screen. I just feel so good again because the theater is my community." Cash reveals that she was considering quitting acting a few years ago—"like we all do"—when her husband observed, "I don't think you hate acting. I think you hate what you're doing." She then booked The Best We Could at Manhattan Theatre Club, "another very special project. The first day of rehearsal, I came home and he said I was just lit up. I was so happy to be back. When I come back to the theater, it always reminds me of that little thing in me that wanted to do this in the first place, and that feels really exciting."

A Giant Chance
After auditioning twice for the role of Jessie Stone in Giant, Cash went to London to pursue the opportunity. She joined the cast for the West End transfer, following the production's successful Royal Court Theatre run. "Two weeks before rehearsal started, they had won all the Oliviers, and then I was like, 'Here I am.' I had seven days of rehearsal to jump in because they'd all done it before. So it was almost like being an understudy without a main cast member to watch, to step into," Cash shares. "That said, I had a very strong point of view and I also knew that was the time period that I had. I had a month that I took off before I got to London to learn the play backwards and forwards. And because I auditioned, I knew that my idea was also something they were interested in."

The Lithgow Effect
In the show, Cash plays a representative sent by Roald Dahl's American publisher to speak with the author, in an effort to elicit an apology for an anti-semitic literary review. Dahl is played to enormous effect by Tony winner John Lithgow. Dahl treats Stone with contempt, but there are emotionally fraught moments of connection, as they are both parents to children with disabilities. Speaking to this nuance, Cash says, "There is context to every action. And context is not an excuse, but context is important. To see somebody as a full human and to have Jessie and Roald connect on this thing that is very tender in both of them is really beautiful. It also shows you that bigotry does not mean that there are not points of common interest. If we could focus on those things more, maybe there'd be less hatred." She adds of Lithgow that he is "the best actor I've ever worked with, so he makes it easy to connect to him. He's just a great human. Power is an interesting thing—celebrity, fame— it really shows who someone is, and John is good. His power, he immediately diffuses it with joy and curiosity and friendliness."

The Power of Now
Reflecting on her journey to Broadway, Cash says, "I feel very lucky. Looking forward, you can always despair. Even looking around, you can despair. Looking back, I'm like, 'What a life, what a career, what an amazing group of roles I've gotten to play.'" When asked to look forward (without despair!) to a potential Main Stem return, she says: "The idea of returning to Broadway is insane to me. I can't believe I'm here in the first place. I have auditioned for so many Broadway shows. Honestly, I'm working on looking around and just being like, 'This is it.' The fact that I get to do it with a play that I think is so incredible feels like the win."

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