Aviva Martinez was born on November 16, 1981 to Cuban-American George Martinez and Hungarian-American Adina Varga in Emerson, NJ. She's the oldest daughter to the couple that own and operate the Good Stuff Diner in Emerson. Previously, her parents were working as manager and head waitress of the establishment for years before the owner had passed the business on to her father. She has three younger siblings; a teacher named Chris, a medical grad-student named Mark and Rosie who works at the restaurant with her parents and is an aspiring actress herself. The Martinez household was fairly strict, with a strong focus on education. The kids were encouraged to do whatever they wanted in life, as long as that life began after they finished college. Their father was the main enforcer in their household, even when it came to their mother it was his rules or bust. That wasn't to say that Adina didn't have a strong presence in the life of the Martinez children, she wasn't as abrasive with them but still got her points across.

From elementary through high school Aviva was a performer, she joined every dance and theater club available and expressed interest in being on stage at an early age. She was also a bit of a joker, her grades were great but the majority of extra comments on report cards and progress reports were notes on her behavior. If she wasn't pulling various pranks, she was telling jokes and typically talking out of turn. It wasn't that there was a lack of attention in her home life, as the oldest she was the one under the microscope for the most part, setting the tone for her younger siblings. Aviva was just one part liked the attention and was generally bored with everything around her, so she created her own fun atmosphere. As a result of that the president of the drama club was also the class clown of her graduating class at The Academy of Holy Angels in Demarest, New Jersey.

Her high school drama teacher who didn't mind the majority of her antics, suggested that she find an outlet for her creativity, and introduced her to the Upright Citizens Brigade. There she performed in a series of amateur shows, catching the attention of a casting director looking for young talent. After a meeting and an audition initially for the role of Lindsay Weir on Freaks and Geeks which she didn't land, she wound up with a smaller role on the show for four episodes. While on the show for the short time that she was, she had begun to attend writing workshops, and after her taping obligations finished she went back home to New York to attend Hunter College, majoring in English with a focus on Creative Writing. All while writing in and out of school, she continued to perform and network at UCB, taking up an internship at the NBC studios for Late Night with Conan O'Brien which was the start of her career at NBC.

She graduated from Hunter with honors, but didn't immediately find work in the industry. While she waited for call backs from interviews and auditions, she lived at home and worked as a waitress in the diner just as she did through her junior and senior years of high school. On her days off? She continued her improv performances at the UCB theater. Only a few months of spinning plates after college were needed, as she had landed the role of Janis Ian in the movie Mean girls. It was a hit, and one of the producers of the Late Night show who had remembered her face and work ethic as an intern had seen the movie, and immediately went to find her contact information to see if she was interested in an opening on the writing team for the show. Aviva wrote for Conan for two seasons, which was an intense workload as a daily production. Meanwhile, the writing team for Saturday Night Live was being reshaped, and once again her name had come up as a possible hire to reshape the team and bring new life to the show. She began her first season writing at SNL in 2006..

All while she was writing for tv, she never stopped working on her own projects. While writing for SNL, she managed to finish her first screenplay, Juno. It was met with extreme success in both the film festival and award show circuits earning four Academy Award nominations including best picture, and Aviva took home the award for Best Original Screenplay. She also won the BAFTA, NBR and Writer's Guild of America awards for Best Original Screenplay, as well as the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, all in the second half of her first season at Saturday Night Live. With that success, it was believed that she would leave the show and continue writing films. While she acknowledged the accolades given, she made it clear that being in the improv setting was her dream and that she had no plans of leaving her position with the show.

In 2009 her second screenplay which she also executive produced, Jennifer's Body, had come out. It was met with mixed criticism, and Aviva defended her work tooth and nail. One of the main points she brought up, is that if the story was flipped around with male leads instead of female, that it would have been received better and was quoted saying "people need to get off that shit already." From that moment on she was labeled as a feminist figure in the media, and idolized by many young feminist groups although she doesn't consider herself one. In 2011 her screenplay for Young Adult which she also produced the film for received critical acclaim in the awards and film festival circuits.

with more film and television projects on the horizon, Aviva left saturday night live mid-season in 2011. it was  in that time the development for the series orange is the new black began, to later premiere in 2013. she also took on a few screen roles including a small part in Magic Mike and a supporting role in the independent film Frankie Go Boom which premiered at the 2012 SXSW festival. She is currently working on the third season of Orange is the new black and several other projects including programming on her two youtube channels cinefix and tasted.